Swamp Slogger
Posts: 167
Joined: Friday, 23rd October 2015, 03:12
Dungeon monsters should spawn in Lair
all before wrote:Trying to give every branch a completely unique monster set seems to me like a mistake. Adding more monster types increases cognitive load on a player, and at a certain point they all seem like minor variations on one another. Does it really matter which hp-sack melee dude a branch has? Which glass canon? A better design goal is for a branch to have a good mixture of threats with a few monsters or layout features that make it unique.
Lair has some cool things that the dungeon mostly lacks (hydras, beefy melee enemies that are faster than you, less cover). But for the most part it's monster set is like that of dungeon only less interesting and rebranded as animals.
I think that as many lair monsters as possible should be replaced with similar monsters from the dungeon. For example all the speed-10, gimmic-less monsters can be replaced by ogre packs, ettins, etc. Fire drakes can be replaced by centaurs with flaming ammo. The distinctive Lair monsters that shouldn't be replaced include the fast melee guys (wolves, snakes, frogs) and the monsters with fun gimmics (hydras, catoblepi, brain worms).
Besides better gameplay, this would be good for flavour. If you were a hill giant, wouldn't you want to hang out in the gently rolling hills and rocky defiles of the Lair? Of course you would.
- For this message the author phloomp has received thanks:
- all before