A Monstrous Personality

Today we're taking a look at monsters with a sample orc stat block and the core rules for the new action economy for creatures.

I wanted to show off what a monster stat block looks like in Odyssey. If you've followed me here for a while, you are familiar with the basics. A few notes:

• At one point I condensed the six stats down to three, but found in play that I was constantly translated from the classic six stats to my three and back. The time savings did not feel worth it.

• I'm treating initiative for monsters as a static value. This step is important, as it alters monster stats.

• Monster stats have evolved quite a bit more based on playtests. I have created a few basic monster templates that set a pattern within a monster's stat block. For instance, the orc warrior is a brute. Brutes have low initiative. In return, their base damage is three rounds of attacks compressed down into two rounds of actions.

• In general, I am going for low hit points and higher damage for monsters across the board. In play, that has led to monsters that feel more threatening while keeping combat fast. It also means that when a character burns a resource to do something, it has clear, tangible results.

• I've created several new types of actions to make it easier for monsters to take on multiple characters. The action economy heavily favors the PCs, so I wanted some tools to make dragons and so on easier to run and more flexible in encounters.

• Monsters cover multiple levels. The stat block here is calibrated for D&D 5e and presents orc warriors from levels 1 to 4.

I also took my concept for personality guidelines and applied them to custom reaction tables you can attach to monsters. In the sample PDF, the orc stat block is accompanied by a reaction table for orc raiders from the Stone Raider clan. Picture orc vikings who ride on howdahs atop apatosauruses instead of longships and you get the basic idea.