Monsters With Spells.

I thought Dungeons & Dragons 2024 was going to a new format.

From what I’m seeing and hearing, D&D has not changed one very critical element in their monster designs, and it absolutely baffles me why they don’t do it. I even see this phenomenon in other games that are similar to D&D, and my beloved Dragonbane has a similar issue. Let’s talk about monsters and Non Player Characters with spellcasting.

I can understand the very old, venerated way to list spellcasting monsters. “Blah monster casts Magic-User Spells 1^st through 7^th level as if they had a 15 Intelligence,” for example. That’s how it used to be back in ye olden days of gaming. It was tedious as a Dungeon Master back then, but we accepted it as a part of the game. The easy way around it was to only give the creature the same spell or maybe two or three spells at each level with the option of casting them more than once. Back then certain spells would either never come up or would be an automatic TPK under the right circumstances.

We’ve had over 50 years to figure out a better format.

Obviously every Game/Dungeon Master is a little different in how they do things. I used to write down a few spellcasting conditions for monsters with spells back in the 3^rd Ed D&D days. Since then I’m happy if I remember the thing even has spells unless that’s the monster’s primary defense. (Liches, for example.)

Powers are one of the truly unique and wonderful facets of 4^th Ed D&D that I miss. Various spells were just another ability like any other character class had. Clerics called them prayers. Wizards called them spells. They functioned otherwise identically to what Rangers or Fighters would choose for Daily or Encounter powers. There weren’t a ton of various ways to screw that up. I also kinda miss casting the same spell as an attack the way we did in that edition.

This is part of why games such as Shadowdark and Dragonbane work so much better in terms of player controlled spellcasters. I spend my willpower (Dragonbane) roll my skill die and cast my magical mice. I can pretty much cast spells from my repertoire all day as long as I make the skill roll (and have the WP in Dragonbane.) Critical failures lead to rolling on the bad news table in both games. Just don’t botch the roll.

D&D still hasn’t figured it out, but Shadowdark did. Lots of love for Kelsey Dionne around here. Shadowdark monsters have their spells listed as their regular abilities. We don’t have to dig around looking up spells, trying to figure out damage or effects. I don’t think it’s too much to ask just to list out the spells as any other monster or NPC ability.

Example:

Feldon the Undead Mage in Dragonbane.

Resistance: Takes half damage from non-magical weapons, except fire which inflicts normal damage.

Movement: 8    Damage Bonus: None
Armor: 2 (Magic Ring)           HP: 10 WP: 16
Skills:  Awareness 12, Evade 14, Staff 12, Elementalism 14.
Weapon: Staff. Range 2, D8 damage.
Spells: Fireball: Rank 1, 20 meters, base 2d6 damage + ignite flammable.

IF that’s all I know Feldon is ever going to need to cast, I’m not going to list out all of his magic tricks and two other spells he knows. If the party happens upon his grimoire I will gladly fill in all of those details with the item. If I wanted to beef him up I could add a couple more spells and give the staff a few magical abilities, too. Why do more than the character needs to do?

That’s kind of my dream for D&D someday. Instead of giving us a list, they would assume the DM knows how to customize a monster that would be great. Maybe it’s just part of the new D&D design mentality, but I really thought 2024 would be the year they simplified monster design.

Thank you for being here with me today. I appreciate you. Keep it real, but please strive for positivity, too. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy in your life.