There’s a very good post over on the 4th edition monster forums from Direach (yay for shift keys!) where he’s done a lot of people a great service and explained the monster creation steps. I’ve posted the post here in its entirety but as always I recommend you follow the link to see other input and comments that others might have.
Sometimes a thread is really more useful for the response to it than the actual post. Not that that’s the case here but anytime I do post a thread’s contents, it always pays to go take a look and see what’s going. If you have the time of course.
Click the more link or the post title to see the whole thing.
I’ve seen several posts from people who are confused or frustrated with the monster creation process in the DMG. I wrote this guide to monster creation to hopefully assist players and DM’s who want to build their own critters. It is not exhaustive, but combined with the DMG and the MM it should provide a solid foundation for custom-building creatures from scratch.
Let’s go through the creation process from start to finish. Our subject will be: the brass golem. It doesn’t exist in 4E yet, but it has a lot of cool potential, and has some cousins to work from in the MM. Let’s see how it shakes out as we go:Choose Level: The existing golems are both Paragon tier, and I expect the much more powerful iron golem will be Paragon or higher (eventually). The brass golem was originally presented as a lower level construct, so we’ll make the brass golem a Heroic tier monster. It’s gotta be worth the effort to create, though; level 8-9 sounds about right. We’ll make him 9th level.
Choose Role: Golems are nearly always guardians of something, or more rarely bodyguards. This makes them ideal Brutes and Soldiers.The brass golem is usually depicted as a bull-headed brass construct with a giant greataxe. While Brute is an easy choice, the brass golem “feels†better as a guardian, so let’s designate it as a Soldier. The other golems in the MM are Elites, and the visual of a pair of brass golems standing guard at some ancient door is appealing, so we’ll make the brass golem Elite as well.
Ability Scores: Ability scores for monsters are the most play-it-by-ear aspect of monster creation. Use common sense and what feels right, but don’t go overboard. When possible, use existing creatures that fit the rough parameters of what you’re after as a guideline. The ‘13+half-level for primary stat per pair’ guideline in the DMG is helpful, but the MM is full of creatures that ignore these guidelines.
Constitution is the most important score, because it governs hit points. Golems are very tough, and our brass golem is no exception; we’ll give him an 18 Constitution. A 20 Strength fits the DMG guidelines and feels right, as well. Golems are typically slow-moving and ponderous, but our brass golem will be slightly more nimble than his flesh and stone cousins; Dexterity 8. Brass golem is still dumb as a post, though: Int 3. As a sentinel, he needs to pay attention, so again we’ll give him an edge over his cousins: Wisdom 10. Charisma? Whut? Brass golem gets a 3, like his cousins.
It’s worth noting that the numbers that follow ability scores in a monster’s stat block are the numbers you use when a monster needs to make a given ability check. The value is ½ level + the bonus or penalty for the ability score.
Hit Points: As easy as pie. Use the table on page 184 of the DMG to determine base hit points for a level 9 Soldier with an 18 Constitution: 98 hit points. But our brass golem is Elite, so… double that. 196 hit points! Which of course makes its bloodied value 98 hp.
It’s worth noting that the paragraph about hit points under ‘Creating New Elites’ on page 185 is confusing and misleading. You don’t need to double a monster’s hit points AND add double its Constitution score… an Elite monster has 2x the hit points of a standard version of that monster, period. This is borne out over and over in the MM, I think the DMG just contains some bad syntax there.
Armour Class: Not quite as simple as hit points, but not hard. AC is one of several areas where MM monsters frequently diverge from the DMG guidelines. My advice is: start with the guidelines and work your way to a number that feels right.
Soldiers are tough; they have the highest AC of all monster types. The guidelines suggest 16+level for Soldier AC, which gives our brass golem a base AC of 25. He doesn’t use a shield, and he’s made of brass (granted, it’s magical brass, but still brass), so that seems about right. Could it be 26? Sure. But I wouldn’t vary AC by much more than one point per tier. In any case, 25 AC sounds about right for the brass golem.
Other Defenses: Again, use the guidelines as a starting point, but common sense must rule the day at the end. Here is another area where ability scores come into play as well: a monster’s non-AC defenses are modified by how much their ability scores vary from the baseline (10-11). This generally equates to a one point bonus (or penalty) based on the variance from the baseline.
Soldiers have recommended non-AC defenses equal to 12 + level. Our brass golem is tough, with a 20 Strength and 18 Con, so it will have a solid Fortitude defense: 25. Shouldn’t it be 26, according to the math? Yes, but a Soldier monster’s AC should be its highest defense, or at least tied for highest. Boosting its AC is probably not a great idea, so instead we’ll reduce its Fortitude defense by 1 to 25 (which follows along with the ‘one point per tier’ variance guideline).
Reflex defense is next; our brass golem is a little less clumsy than his cousins, but not by much. Reflex defense is 20: 12 + level (9) + Dex mod (-1).
Finally, Will defense. Is our brass golem dumb? Yes. Lacking personality? Absolutely. But his Will defense sits at a decent value of 21, which is pure baseline for a level 9 Soldier. Personally, I think it should be a little higher, but our brass golem already excels at AC and Fortitude and needs another weak spot besides Reflex.
IMPORTANT! If you’re making a Solo or Elite, its defenses are higher than normal! Add +2 to as many as three of your creation’s best defenses (including AC); if it has a weak spot, leave it open. Our brass golem will therefore have an AC of 27, a Fortitude defense of 27, Reflex defense of 20 (weak spot), and a Will defense of 23.
Powers: Now, we get into the hard part! Choosing powers for your monster can be extremely easy, or it can be very time-consuming and difficult. It gets more complicated as you get into higher tiers as well. The guidelines in the DMG help with selecting the number of powers and damage ranges, but they don’t say anything about balancing applied conditions, effect on a missed attack, and power synergy (how a monster’s powers work with or build off of one another). In that regard, your best guides are common sense and the existing creatures in the MM. Seeing how a creature with similar powers is built is a HUGE help when designing a new creature.
A Heroic tier monster typically has one basic attack (sometimes two, if it has ranged ability), and either a standard attack or a recharge/encounter ability. Soldier monsters tend to have a basic attack and one special attack or ability. An Elite counts as two monsters, and needs a little more punch to allow it to deal with multiple foes (and provide variety).
Considering what we know, and what we see in the MM (which has a notable shortage of level 9 Elite Soldiers), we can start putting together the powers for our brass golem. The basic attack is a no-brainer: greataxe, anyone? Easy. But what else would be cool for the brass golem?
We know this is a melee monster; it’s not going to have any ranged attacks. As an Elite, it needs to be able to deal with multiple attackers, so we’ll give it a standard attack called Double Strike, allowing it to make two attacks with its greataxe. A little boring, but we’re not done yet.
It’s got the head of a bull, so let’s give it a gore attack as an additional basic option. This attack sacrifices reach for extra hitting power, and will have an extra status effect added on to it: knocked prone.
Here’s where you get to have some fun as monster maker. Our brass golem needs a special attack that’s cool and dramatic. How about belching out a spray of molten metal? That’ll wake em up! Molten Breath gets the go-ahead, and we’ll make this a recharging ability, just to keep things interesting.
But we still need a little more punch for our Elite brass golem. Taking a cue from history (in this case the Brazen Bull, a nightmarish torture device that is nevertheless synergistically pleasing on many levels), we will give the brass golem a severely bad temper: the madder it gets, the hotter it gets! We’ll call this power Brazen Aura, and it will kick in when the brass golem is bloodied.
The DMG guidelines suggest that a monster have an additional recharge/encounter ability per tier. Auras can also fall into this category. Ultimately, the number and nature of attacks and special attacks is up to you, but these guidelines are pretty sound.
Attack Bonuses and Damage: We can do this at the same time, one attack at a time. Once again, the DMG guidelines will help us with the math:
Greataxe: basic melee attack vs. AC. Soldier monsters have a base ‘to hit’ vs. AC of level + 7, so our brass golem’s basic attack is +16 vs. AC. Soldiers typically do less damage per hit than most creatures, but there is no good reason to lowball a perfectly good greataxe: damage will be 1d12 + 5. Tag this attack with the Weapon keyword.
Double Strike: standard attack vs. AC, pretty much the same as above, doing 1d12 + 5 damage, except that it gets to make two attacks. Done and done.
Gore: basic attack vs. AC, so +16. No reach, but more damage: 2d8+5 and ‘knocked prone’ effect on a hit. The extra damage is rough, but it is mitigated by the fact that the brass golem can’t make multiple Gores unless it uses its action point.
Molten Breath: Standard attack, but not vs. AC, and not single target, so we need to do a bit more work. Blast 3 sounds about right for a spray of molten brass (a 3×3 area adjacent to the brass golem). Because Molten Breath attacks Reflex rather than AC, and hits multiple targets, it has a lower chance to hit: +12 vs. Reflex (as indicated by the table on page 184 of the DMG).
As nasty as this attack sounds, we don’t want it to be a party killer, so we’ll use the lower value on the Limited Damage Expressions table (DMG page 185): 3d8 + 5. A recharge 5,6 seems pretty sound for this power; our brass golem will get to barf molten brass on your party several times, but (hopefully) not every round. This attack is tagged with the Fire keyword.
For the last power, we go completely non-standard. Brazen Aura is not exactly an attack, but it will give PC’s a hard time when it activates. We designate this as a free action that occurs when the brass golem is first bloodied. We’ll make it an aura, so it persists with no actions required by the golem, and set its area of effect to two squares (it’s hot!).
Resist the urge to overpower specials like this. You can stack a lot of awful effects in an aura, but if players are going to get hit by it round after round, your creativity needs to be tempered with mercy. Our brass golem’s Brazen Aura is tough but fair: any creature that begins its turn within the aura takes 5 fire damage. This encourages PC’s to ‘stick and move’ if they want to avoid getting cooked.
Everything Else: This section is glossed over in the DMG, but it is important! There is a lot that falls in here in order to make a complete monster. Initiative, Senses, immunities, saving throw bonuses and action points for Elites and Solos, size, keywords for origin, subtype, and attacks, experience, skills, and other miscellany are all important parts of monster building.
Initiative for monsters is a combination of ½ level + Dex mod + role. Following this formula, our brass golem has an initiative bonus of +6.
Senses are one of the greyest areas in the MM (meaning they get fudged often). Generally, a monster’s Perception check is equal to ½ level + Wis mod, but some monsters (usually Elites or Solos) are “trained†in Perception, and gain an additional +5 bonus. Our brass golem is not, and has a modest Perception value of +4 . He does have darkvision, though (standard for golems).
Being constructs, nearly all golems are immune to something. Like his stone golem cousin, our brass golem is immune to disease, poison, and sleep. Could we make him immune to fear too? Probably. But three immunities to uncommon attacks is plenty.
Since fire and molten brass play a big part in the design of our brass golem, let’s give him Resist 10 vs. fire. He can still get blasted if the fire’s hot enough, but he’ll shrug off weaker fire attacks.
Resist the temptation to include too many immunities and resists in your monsters. It’s easy to justify a monster’s resistance/immunity to this or that, but every resist and immunity limits your players’ options. Resists and immunities should emphasize a monster’s most resilient defenses, not stop the players in their tracks.
The MM sets the precedent that golems can’t shift. I see no reason to alter this for our brass golem, so that will be noted in its stat block.
Size, origin, type and subtype are all pretty easy. Our brass golem is a Large natural animate (construct). Could it be Fire subtype as well? Mmm… nah. Maybe. Nah.
The experience value for a lvl 9 Elite monster is 800xp, and it’s no different for our brass golem.
Most monsters do not have skills, but if your monster does, the formula is pretty simple: ½ level + ability modifier + 5. A monster is always considered trained in any skill it possesses. Our brass golem is skill-free, so we don’t need anything here.
Putting It All Together: We’ve gone through the creation process start to finish; all that’s left is to put our creation into a readable, usable form and finish off all the little details. The rest of the miscellaneous stuff mentioned above is incorporated into the following stat block, along with anything else that needs adding:
Brass Golem Level 9 Elite Soldier
Large natural animate (construct) XP 800
Initiative +6 Senses Perception +4; darkvision
Brazen Aura (Fire) aura 2; while the brass golem is bloodied, creatures that start their turn within the aura take 5 fire damage.
HP 196; Bloodied 98
AC 27; Fortitude 27, Refl ex 20, Will 23
Saving Throws +2
Speed 6; can’t shift
Action Points 1m Greataxe (standard; at-will) Weapon
Reach 2; +16 vs. AC; 1d12 + 5 damage.m Gore (standard; at-will)
The brass golem gores its enemy with its horned head. +16 vs. AC; 2d8 + 5 damage and the target is knocked prone.M Double Strike (standard; at-will) Weapon
The brass golem makes two greataxe attacks.C Molten Breath (standard; recharge 5,6) Fire
Blast 3; +12 vs. Reflex; the target takes 3d8 + 5 fire damage.Alignment Unaligned Languages —
Str 20 (+9) Dex 8 (+3) Wis 10 (+4)
Con 18 (+8) Int 3 (+1) Cha 3 (+1)So there you have it, a complete brass golem ready to fight (apart from whatever flavour text you want to include with it). And hopefully, you have a better idea now of how to build a new monster start to finish.
Of course, no guide like this can ever cover the complete range of options and possibilities for monster creation. As you can see just from this example, common sense and attention to design and detail play a huge part in creating a new monster. The DMG guidelines are there to help, but ultimately you have to make your own decisions about what works and what doesn’t.
The last advice I have to offer is: when in doubt, err on the side of the players. Don’t get so caught up in your creation’s amazing powers of destruction that you forget your players have to fight it (and hopefully win). A good monster is a memorable and exciting opponent; a bad monster will be hated for years to come (and for the wrong reasons).
Good luck!
