Alternate Monster Stats

[Zak Arntson]

I'm prepping a little for my Planescape Donjon game on Monday, and wanted to simplify the monsters. Two goals here:

+ Easier to improvise monsters during play.
+ Make combat easier for me as GM.
+ Hearken back to Basic D&D where Monsters have their own stat blocks, designed specifically as combat encounters.

Here are my alternate monster rules. Thoughts?

Monster Stats:
Level: Same as original
Flesh Wounds: Same as original
Combat: Attribute used for Attack, Parry, Dodging, Damage, etc.
Saves: Attribute used for Other Stuff (Resisting Poison, Magic, a measure of intelligence, etc)
Abilities (5 of 'em, just like the original)

Flesh Wounds: 3 + Level
Combat & Saves: 6 + level points to distribute
Abilities: 10 + (3 x Level) points to distribute

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I figure that Combat is a fine skill, and if I want to enhance attacking, dodging, damage, and so on, I just give the thing an Ability. Same with Saves. You want a magic-resistant monster? Just give it a high Resist Magic Ability.

I did my best to calculate the points given to match up with original Donjon monster stats. I'll let you all know how much I like this new method (so nobody else has to suffer) after our game.

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A quick 'n dirty conversion would look like:
+ Flesh Wounds = Recalculate.
+ Combat = (Virility + Adroitness + Wherewithal) / 3
+ Saves = [(Save vs. Illusion + Cer) + (Save vs. Poison + Whe)] / 2
+ Abilities = Allocate points to make as close to original Donjon monster as possible.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Zak,

Remember that most rolls are Attribute + Ability. You might want to do something like:

- Just add 3 to each Ability to make up for the missing attribute.

- Or, for each action, decide if the monster is Bad (1 die) at it, OK (3 dice) at it, or Great (6 dice) at it.

[Zak Arntson]

Oops. Forgot to clarify.

Combat is the generic Attribute for fighting, and if the monster has, say, an attack Ability, add that Ability to the Attribute.

I did try for Saves representing a combination of Donjon Ability + Save vs. Illusion or Poison. Add an appropriate Ability to the monster and Voila! Saves + Ability = dice.

I also like your 1, 3, 6 rule. Simple = good when it comes to Donjon. I may fiddle with something like that, too.

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Oh! I get what you're saying. An ability that would use, say, Sociality, would be lacking because of no Sociality for the monster. Yeah, I should up the points for Abilities a little. Or something. I'll ponder furhter.

I'm tempted to just leave Saves as "everything but combat" (seems somehow appropriate) so a Seduce Ability would use Saves + Seduce.