There are a couple of monsters with no description (unless I missed it), just a stat block. I was able to find one in the FR Campaign Guide, the other I still don't know where it came from. I have enough information to run the game, but I'll be making up what the creature looks like.
I'm not asking for detailed information, just the standard line or two of physical description that we normally get with monster information. I've noticed this now in a couple of mods now and every time I hunt for the monster's source book just so I can tell people what they see. As a DM I shouldn't be required to own every book and supplement just so that I can describe monster "X" consistently with other DM's.
Allen.
Show
The kir-lanans lack a description, but they can be found in FRCG. The rest are humans, although in case of Felomin we could have made it clearer.
Monster descriptions, essentially a sentence or two for each monster type in the adventure, would pay off greatly in role-play dividends for the players.
In my opinion even if it is already in the MM
I agree with adding a short line to the monster descriptions...
In my opinion even if it is already in the MM
I agree. If I have to run a mod and haven't had prep time, it helps. I'm only asking for a sentence or two of physical description, not the whole writeup.
Allen.
Still, it is one of those things that clash with the requirement to keep the amount of text limited in an adventure.
Of the things to be concerned about, keeping the amount of text limited strikes me as one of the least important.
Sure, save some bandwidth and a few trees by not including completely pointless material (like random artwork), but having this as even a minor priority strikes me as completely missing the point.
The goal is to have a good adventure, not the best adventure possible under the limitation of needing to fit in X pages. Cutting out completely extraneous and valueless text is fine; cutting out text useful to a judge for no other reason but an arbitrary limit is not.
I would like to see all creatures, down to and including common humanoids, have a brief description listed.
CORE1-5:ShowThe kir-lanans lack a description, but they can be found in FRCG. The rest are humans, although in case of Felomin we could have made it clearer.
Of the things to be concerned about, keeping the amount of text limited strikes me as one of the least important.
Sure, save some bandwidth and a few trees by not including completely pointless material (like random artwork), but having this as even a minor priority strikes me as completely missing the point.
The goal is to have a good adventure, not the best adventure possible under the limitation of needing to fit in X pages. Cutting out completely extraneous and valueless text is fine; cutting out text useful to a judge for no other reason but an arbitrary limit is not.
I would like to see all creatures, down to and including common humanoids, have a brief description listed.
Wot 'e sed.
CORE1-5:ShowThe kir-lanans lack a description, but they can be found in FRCG. The rest are humans, although in case of Felomin we could have made it clearer.
Gomez
Pieter,
I just ran CORM1-1. I feel that the way the monster descriptions are done in that adventure, in one or two lines above the monster stat block, is an unobtrusive and helpful way to place basic descriptive information about the monsters in the adventure.
I was actually hopping onto this thread to say the same thing.
I was actually hopping onto this thread to say the same thing.
Yes, this is a bandwagon I can get behind.
I like to find images of every monster and sometimes I'm so in the dark its just... meh.
Stat blocks usually get their own page anyhow, and most of those pages have a couple of lines to spare.
I think a DM aid with not only monster descriptions, but also information to provide players based on various monster knowledge check results would be invaluable.
Seconded.
And put this little chart on the monster-stat-block page to save a tree. It's worth the ink!
That said - I'm completely in favor of a short physical description of each monster, especially if it's a variation on an MM critter that's not completely obvious what it's a variant of.