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Creature Level
What does a creature level mean? In simplest terms, it is equivalent to a player level. A level 1 player should be able to reasonably handle a level 1 monster...Generally. In practice that is not always the case and I will go into greater detail how this system works and why it's not changed to something else.
At it's core, a creature level is a measure of the power of that creature. It dictates roughly the creatures Life and skill ranks and roughly dictates the stats and abilities of the creature. The combined level of the group should roughly be the same as the combined level of the creatures that the group is facing. So if you have a group of 4 level 1 adventurers, then you can have them face off against 4 level 1 monsters, 2 level 2 monsters, or 1 level 4 monster, or any other combination in between. Now not all creatures are created equal, and you will notice that certain monsters are larger and have more life or are smaller and have less life. Because of this, and to make this system simpler to use, for each step above or below medium sized, you can add or subtract .5 levels for each creature of that size from the creature level total. So 2 large level 2 monsters would have a combined creature level of 5, not 4. Also, because numbers matter, for every 2 creatures more or less than your group total, add or subtract .5 from the creature level total. So a group of 4 level 1 adventurers against 2 large level 2 monsters, the combined total of the monsters would end of being 4 (2 for each creature, +1 for the large size of both of the creatures, then -.5 for there being 2 creatures less than the group size, for a total of 4.5, rounded down to 4). If the group is well equipped, especially with magical items, consider adding .5 ~ 2 to the groups effective level, and either -1 or +1 depending on how well the group coordinates together (This is an arbitarty number based on how the Narrator evaluates the group's general performance. If in doubt, don't bother with this). Also, for every 10 effective levels of the group, consider adding an additional level to the enemy total as higher levels of players and creatures are much more unpredictable.
This doesn't mean that it will be a fair fight. Your group might be decked out in magical items, or have talents that make them more powerful, or one player is just unnaturally lucky (or unlucky) with dice rolls. So all the careful planning and setup might mean that your group deals with the threat more easily or less easily than you intended. Be sure to check the creatures that you are using and plan accordingly with your group in mind to make the combat section of the game fun for everyone, and more often than not, error on the side of slightly higher combined monster levels, as one good hit from one or more players can quickly turn the tides of combat, and if your creatures do the same to a player, it is much easier to give your players room to breathe by adjusting the aggression of the creatures than to quickly add monsters on your side to re-balance the fight.
One way to adjust to players using smarter tactics, or getting lucky rolls is to modify a creatures stats and equipment mid combat. It is quite noticeable when you pull another goblin out of the woods, but giving a creature more life by increasing their endurance, strength, or agility after one hit will almost always go unseen. The same for creature armor, the creature suddenly taking less damage will all but be ignored by players as their focus is on how much damage they deal rather than how much damage a creature takes. I would also suggest doing this on a per monster basis if possible as it will create more variation to the creatures your group faces and will generally make the combat more interesting as your group will not know the exact numbers they need for each enemy. You can even take this as an opportunity to show variation in the creatures the group is facing as one creature might be larger and bulkier, more lithe and nimble, more keenly aware of their surroundings, or you can describe the better equipment that it has over it's allies. If you want to have our party face off a group of enemies with varied equipment increase the level of the enemy group by .5 in either per 2 enemies changed this way. So for 2 goblins with better equipment or stats, add .5 and for each 2 goblins with worse equipment or stats, subtract .5.
Creature
Creature
Size Type
Armor: 0 Passive Armor: 0 Armored Defense: 0
Health: 0 (5+STR) Vitality: 0 (1dx-END) Health Pool: 0
Action Points: 10 Movement: 1
STR END DEX AGL INT CUN ACU WIL
-5 -3 -1 2 -4 -4 1 -4
Skills: Mobility, Unarmored - Trained
blindsight 30 ft.
Damage Resistances: poisoned
Status Immunities: charm, exhaustion, poisoned
(abilities)
Actions
(Hit). Melee Weapon Attack: (DEX plus skill) to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: xdx + (STR) (type) damage.
Reactions
Defend. 2 Action Points: (your Spell modifier) Block attempt
Creature
Creature
Size Type
Armor: 0 Passive Armor: 0 Armored Defense: 0
Health: 0 (5+STR) Vitality: 0 (1dx-END) Health Pool: 0
Action Points: 10 Movement: 1
STR END DEX AGL INT CUN ACU WIL
-5 -3 -1 2 -4 -4 1 -4
Skills: Mobility, Unarmored - Trained
blindsight 30 ft.
Damage Resistances: poisoned
Status Immunities: charm, exhaustion, poisoned
(abilities)
Actions
(Hit). Melee Weapon Attack: (DEX plus skill) to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: xdx + (STR) (type) damage.
Reactions
Defend. 2 Action Points: (your Spell modifier) Block attempt
Creature Name
Creature Name
Size Type
Armor: 0 Passive Armor: 0 Armored Defense: 0
Health: 0 (5+STR) Vitality: 0 (1dx+END) Health Pool: 0
Action Points: 10 Movement: 1
STR END DEX AGL INT CUN ACU WIL
-5 -3 -1 2 -4 -4 1 -4
Skills: Mobility, Unarmored - Trained
blindsight 30 ft.
Damage Resistances: poisoned
Status Immunities: charm, exhaustion, poisoned
(abilities)
Actions
(Hit). Melee Weapon Attack: (DEX plus skill) to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: xdx + (STR) (type) damage.
Reactions
Defend. 2 Action Points: (your Spell modifier) Block attempt
Name - This is the name of the creature, or it can be the name of a specific character. This has no effect on anything.
Size - The size of the creature has a large effect on the stat block of a creature.
Size modifiers: Tiny - 1, Small - 3, Medium - 5, Large - 7, Huge - 10, Gargantuan - 15
Size penalty: Tiny +2, Small +1, Medium +0, Large -1, Huge -2, Gargantuan -3
Type - This is the type of creature, such as Humanoid, Monster, Beast, etc. This may dictate how attributes are generally distributed, and some common traits or abilities the creature might have.
Armor - This line shows the main defenses of a creature. The first item, Armor, shows whatever armor the creature might have without magic or other enhancements. Passive Armor and Armored Defense are based on Armor.
Passive Armor (PA) - This is the target number needed to hit the creature if it is not using Active Defenses such as Dodge or Block.
PA = Armor + Armor Skill Bonus + Size Penalty
Armor Defense (AD) - This is how much damage the armor prevents.
AD = ½ armor (Rounded down) + Armor Skill Rank
Health - Is slightly different if the creature is a Humanoid. For most creatures the formula is:
Health = Size modifier + 2x Strength (or just Strength if it is negative) + HB
For humanoids it is similar but the Size modifier is always 5:
Health = 5 + 2x Strength (or just Strength if it is negative) + HB
Vitality - is based on the size of the creature, or the role of the creature if it is humanoid.
1d4 for Tiny, 1d6 for Small, 1d8 for Medium, 1d10 for Large, 1d12 for Huge, and 1d20 for Gargantuan.
For humanoids, it is:
1d4 for dedicated casters such as mages and wizards, 1d6 for specialized characters (such as the assassin or priest) or pact casters, 1d8 for martial heavy characters, and 1d10 for brutes and tanks.
To get Vitality, take the average of the vitality dice (2.5 for 1d4, 3.5 for 1d6, 4.5 for 1d8, etc) and multiply that by the level of the creature (rounding down, and use 1 for level 0 creatures) and add the creature's Endurance times their level to that total.
Health Boost (HB) - Health Boosts are added to a creature's health at certain intervals in their level - 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, etc. At every interval, add the HB to the creature's health. HB can be 0 to 3. HB can be added to make the creature slightly more resilient. Generally 0 for non-martial classes and 3 for tanks.
Action Points (AP) - Action points are based on the level of the creature, as seen in the NPC advancement table. For NPC's, AP are a static number. This number represents the 5 plus the average of an Action Point dice (1d4) for that level. The final total is:
AP = AP Value + ½ Vitality Dice (rounded down) + Agl + Dex (or Cun for spell casters)
Movement - The creature type affects movement. No movement speed can be reduced below 1 by attributes. For most Humanoid and General NPC's movement is:
Movement = 3 + Agl
For many NPC and creatures, they have additional movement options that follow other rules.
Base Movement:
4 plus Agility for beasts and creatures with 4 legs
2 plus Agility for creatures that crawl or slither on the ground
2 (no Agl) for creatures that fly or swim naturally, but don't move naturally on land
-1 for Tiny Creatures
Flying Movement:
5 plus Agility for most flyers
3 plus Agility for gliders such as the flying squirrel or the flying snake
Swimming Movement:
2 plus Endurance
5 plus Endurance for no base movement or amphibians
Climb or Burrow Movement:
1 plus str for movement
Add size penalty to any movement above base movement (fly, swim, climb, burrow)
-1 for each movement type above the second movement type
damage for humanoid is based on weapons
damage for non-humanoid is mostly based on size 1d4 for tiny on up, damage is less important than hit so increasing the damage doesn't do too much.
target number for defense rolls is 8 plus skill bonus plus attribute
Dodge = armor + mobility defense + Agility
Block = Shield + Strength + Body defense
variants: adding a few minor features to make variants, or slightly changing the stat block. I don't want to create a huge list, so I need to make a template that I can add. For example creating a domesticated work version of a creature would be just adding 1 to STR.
Work variant - increase Body by 1 each and decrease Mobility by 1 each
Some creatures will feel less powerful and you can add abilities or other features to help give the creature more power. Adding too much can increase the power of the creature too much at times but much of this comes down to testing, trial, and error. What is presented here is a guideline and a baseline for you to start with. For example, for humanoid creatures, you can easily swap out equipment and armor to make any given creature more or less powerful.
When designing a combat encounter for players you generally want the total level of the creatures you are fighting to equal the players. For every 2 levels below the players, the creature is less of a threat so lower the value of the encounter by .5, and for every 2 creatures more than double the party, increase the value of the encounter by .5 as the encounter becomes more threatening.
Traits
[Beast]
Beastial Defense. The creature adds its Agility to its Passive Armor and uses its Passive Armor instead of Armor when calculating Dodge.
[Dire Animal]
Bone Armor. The creature adds its Endurance to its Armor. Additionally, whenever a creature hits the turtle with a melee attack from within 5 feet, the attacker takes 1 piercing damage from jagged bone spurs.
Echolocation. The creature can't use its blindsight while Deafened.
Keen [Sense]. The creature has advantage on Awareness rolls that rely on [Sense].
Multiple Heads. The creature has advantage on Awareness rolls, defense rolls against being Blinded or Deafened, against Entrancement, Fear, Sleep, and Stun effects, and cannot be flanked.
Amphibious. The creature can breathe air and water.
Water Breathing. The creature can breathe only underwater.
Hold Breath. The creature can hold its breath for x minutes/hours.
Underwater Camouflage. The creature has advantage on Stealth rolls made while underwater.
Flyby. The creature doesn't provoke counterattacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.
Charge. If the creature moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a [] attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra x (xdx) [type] damage.
Sure-Footed. The creature has advantage on rolls made against effects that would knock it prone.
Strong Runner. The creature adds its Strength to its movement.
Strong Swimmer. The creature adds its Strength to its swim speed.
Wall Climbing. The creature has a climbing speed equal to its movement.
Spider Climb. The creature has a climbing speed equal to its movement, and can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make a dice roll.
Brachiator. The creature increases its climbing speed by 2, but its movement on the ground is reduced by 1.
Serpentine. The snake can move on the water like on land. Its swim speed on top of the water is equal to its movement.
Mount. The creature is suitable for use as a mount.
Blood Frenzy. The creature's attacks cost 1 less Action Point when targeting a creature that is Bloodied or Winded.
Pack Tactics. The creature has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the creature's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.
Efficient Attacks. The Action Point cost of the creature's attacks is reduced by 1.
Pounce. If the creature moves 20 ft. towards a creature before hitting it with its [], the target must succeed on a target x Body (Strength) defense roll or fall Prone.
Natural Armor. The creature's armor increases by [size].
Chitinous Shell. The creature adds its Strength to its Armor and Shield value.
Thick Fat. The creature adds its [Strength or Endurance] to its Armor.
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