On the heels of previous monster creation post, we get the March Dragon Editorial, where they talk about the progression of monsters from the very beginning.
Specifically, they talk about the roper, which, ever since the 3.5 module Forge of Fury, have been a favorite of mine. Our party's encounter with that creature still sits in our minds, all these years later.
The roper, through the various versions, has certainly changed to match the "style" of the monster design, even if it tried to maintain its signature mark: strength-sapping, adventurer-dragging tentacles. It's is interesting to see how that is handled by the rules, especially back in 1st edition, where it was a very "loose" set of rules, to 3.5 with a large set of terms, to 4e with a very miniature-like set of operations. Especially, I like the question in the article, "but mechanically … what exactly is happening here, and when?"
The article claims that the 4e roper is well-designed, and I have to agree. It adheres to the "style" of 4e powers, and it does so, in the same manner as other more "complex" creatures, by having attacks that require the target to be in some other state. So the roper has a Reel ability that can only be used on a target that it has grabbed, which is the result of a successful tentacle attack, much as other creatures can immobilize with one attack, then can use a special attack against immobilized targets.
This is good design. It stands by the rule of "reduced paperwork", where 4e tries to prevent all of the bookkeeping involved with effects wearing off, or recharging (like the old dragon breath). I think it will be interesting to see if the 4e design has anticipated all of the 4e interpretations of older monsters and older abilities: we have immobilized, dazed, stunned, grabbed, prone, etc., and push, pull and slide; and I suppose there's no reason you can't add a new "condition" later on, if one's needed. And then as long as a conversion can turn an old-school ability to a "first attack and cause condition X, then use a different attack (on a target under condition X), to have this other effect", we can pretty much convert anything, from older editions or from our minds.
Showing posts with label formulae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label formulae. Show all posts
Monday, March 2, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
New powers
It looks like February has been a slow month, and I wonder where I've been slacking, but then realize that, except for a handful of PDF Dragon articles that I have yet to read, there's not much else to talk about this month.
One of those PDF articles is on playing the Shadar-Kai, a shadowy race of creatures. The race is spelled out as a player race in the back of the Monster Manual, but the Dragon article goes further about the background of the shadar-kai as a race, and also provides a few extra powers, based on the shadar-kai's expertise with the spiked chain.
This is actually a pseudo-multiclass feat that you take (the training), which then lets you take other feats (at 4th-, 8th- and 10th-level) to swap out some of your powers for spiked chain specialty powers.
This got me thinking about the human fighter I was making in the Character Builder a few weeks ago, based on my 3.5 spiked chain/repeating crossbow fighter. As I made Placide as a 4e character in the Character Builder, I took advantage of the Compendium's search capabilities to search for any powers that gave mention or a bonus to "flail" weapons, which is where the spiked chain falls, to try and create the same focus on a specific weapon.
And this got me thinking about how it was fortuitous that spiked chain-specific powers appeared, which then got me thinking, "why couldn't I have come up with this?"
And that's what got me writing this post. I've bored you to tears about my comments on the math behind making monsters, or lack thereof, but what about powers? What is it that makes this given power a 9th-level Daily? How do you know if the amount of damage makes a power 5th, 15th or 25th level? Is it simply the 1[W], which magically goes up to 2[W] at level X, 3[W] at level Y, etc.? Sort of (see below). What if the power adds prone? What if it dazes until end of my next turn (or save ends?)
These are the same questions I asked about monster design, about taking an existing one and swapping out an attack for another similar (whatever that means) attack. And again, I wonder if there's some magic formula of "1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage, slide the target 2 squares and the target is knocked prone" is equal to "6th-level utility power". There are a bunch of powers throughout the Player's Handbook which have 1[W] at some level, then 2[W] ten levels higher, then 3[W] ten levels after that.
But does that mean that 1[W] is worth ten levels? Probably not - I think that this is just a way to make lower-level powers appealing, to give the player the option to keep the ability (prone, daze, slide, etc.) and not feel forced to give it up for a higher-level power when it comes available. But it's a start -- if I want to take a power with 1[W] damage (and some other features) and make it start as a 2[W] power, I'd probably add 5 or 7 levels to make it comparable.
But could I really go through the powers in the Player's Handbook and reverse-engineer what a "slide 2" adds to the level of a power? The fact that you don't get a daily power or encounter power at every level means that if you're modding a daily power to a higher-level one, you can't just add X levels and say that it's a new daily power -- you'd have to find the nearest level at which dailies appear, and decide if, by lowering or raising your new power to that level, you now have an over- or under-powered power.
The fact is that this is an easier thing to test -- the build of a power is nowhere near as complex as that of a monster, and it would be easy enough to find similar powers across different classes (or perhaps the same one) and either prove that there is a formula (even if not strictly adhered to, for level-restriction reasons), or prove that it's all just made up, that Wizards just "feels" that THIS power is an nth-level Daily, THIS power is a nth-level Encounter...
If I find something out, I'll let you know. Until then, I'm not sure of the best strategy for devising your own new powers, for the character you have that needs some specialty powers with some other specific weapon.
One of those PDF articles is on playing the Shadar-Kai, a shadowy race of creatures. The race is spelled out as a player race in the back of the Monster Manual, but the Dragon article goes further about the background of the shadar-kai as a race, and also provides a few extra powers, based on the shadar-kai's expertise with the spiked chain.
This is actually a pseudo-multiclass feat that you take (the training), which then lets you take other feats (at 4th-, 8th- and 10th-level) to swap out some of your powers for spiked chain specialty powers.
This got me thinking about the human fighter I was making in the Character Builder a few weeks ago, based on my 3.5 spiked chain/repeating crossbow fighter. As I made Placide as a 4e character in the Character Builder, I took advantage of the Compendium's search capabilities to search for any powers that gave mention or a bonus to "flail" weapons, which is where the spiked chain falls, to try and create the same focus on a specific weapon.
And this got me thinking about how it was fortuitous that spiked chain-specific powers appeared, which then got me thinking, "why couldn't I have come up with this?"
And that's what got me writing this post. I've bored you to tears about my comments on the math behind making monsters, or lack thereof, but what about powers? What is it that makes this given power a 9th-level Daily? How do you know if the amount of damage makes a power 5th, 15th or 25th level? Is it simply the 1[W], which magically goes up to 2[W] at level X, 3[W] at level Y, etc.? Sort of (see below). What if the power adds prone? What if it dazes until end of my next turn (or save ends?)
These are the same questions I asked about monster design, about taking an existing one and swapping out an attack for another similar (whatever that means) attack. And again, I wonder if there's some magic formula of "1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage, slide the target 2 squares and the target is knocked prone" is equal to "6th-level utility power". There are a bunch of powers throughout the Player's Handbook which have 1[W] at some level, then 2[W] ten levels higher, then 3[W] ten levels after that.
But does that mean that 1[W] is worth ten levels? Probably not - I think that this is just a way to make lower-level powers appealing, to give the player the option to keep the ability (prone, daze, slide, etc.) and not feel forced to give it up for a higher-level power when it comes available. But it's a start -- if I want to take a power with 1[W] damage (and some other features) and make it start as a 2[W] power, I'd probably add 5 or 7 levels to make it comparable.
But could I really go through the powers in the Player's Handbook and reverse-engineer what a "slide 2" adds to the level of a power? The fact that you don't get a daily power or encounter power at every level means that if you're modding a daily power to a higher-level one, you can't just add X levels and say that it's a new daily power -- you'd have to find the nearest level at which dailies appear, and decide if, by lowering or raising your new power to that level, you now have an over- or under-powered power.
The fact is that this is an easier thing to test -- the build of a power is nowhere near as complex as that of a monster, and it would be easy enough to find similar powers across different classes (or perhaps the same one) and either prove that there is a formula (even if not strictly adhered to, for level-restriction reasons), or prove that it's all just made up, that Wizards just "feels" that THIS power is an nth-level Daily, THIS power is a nth-level Encounter...
If I find something out, I'll let you know. Until then, I'm not sure of the best strategy for devising your own new powers, for the character you have that needs some specialty powers with some other specific weapon.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Powers for everyone
Having read the Warden and Druid classes, I get the feeling of a bit of similarity. True, the Warden doesn't have the burst powers the Druid has, and the Warden has its Marking. Perhaps it's just the effect that Griff and I have mentioned in the past, how all of the powers seem to be the same thing, for every class, with just a little change here and there -- it's like there's a formula for making powers:
Pick an attack ability (Wisdom)
Pick a defense (Reflex)
Pick a range (10 squares)
Pick damage (1d6 fire)
Pick one of the following extra effects: push, pull, slide, stun, daze, combat advantage, zone of effect (zone of effect: fire)
Based on the above, determine whether this is at-will, encounter or daily, based on some formula (at-will)
If Daily, determine the Miss effect, if any (none)
Based on the above, determine appropriate class for this power (Druid)
Based on that, determine the power's name (Flame Seed)
I wonder if every combination of every variable has been crunched into a database, and the last few steps just need to be done for the lifetime of 4e. New classes could be determined that way:
"I was browsing through the database, and found a Dex vs. Fortitude Range 5 2d6 + stun encounter power - what should we do with it?"
"Sounds like some sort of deftly-thrown implement that knocks someone out -- sounds like a Martial Controller to me. Let's call it the 'Flying Dagger' class. Next!"
Now I understand that, given the mechanics of the game, there are only so many combinations of things: we have six abilities to "attack" with, four defenses, four attack types (melee, ranged, burst, close burst), and then some creative damage and effects. So you might say of *course* they're going to start feeling similar.
And that's the point: in previous editions of D&D, those with "spellcasting" differed in large ways: arcane vs. divine, holy vs. nature, innate vs. learned. That let you easily tell the difference between them, and playing each of these classes was quite different. But now every class has spells (...by any other name...) and that's what's making these classes blur together.
Even just having the 3rd edition fighters and rogues using Feats instead of Powers was enough. Even having one defense score and three saving throws was enough for the classes' abilities to feel different. And this is the feeling that we seem unable to shake - that I'm casting Divine Leader attack at the goblin, that Griff is casting Arcane Controller attack, then a Martial Leader attack, a Martial Striker attack, etc. And while my numbers might be slightly different than Griffs, probably not much so, because my Cleric has his best score in Wisdom, and his in Intelligence, and so our rolls are coming out the same.
I've mentioned in the past that I've not read all of the powers for every class, and that certainly goes for those in the 10+ level range. So perhaps I'm speaking too soon, and perhaps this similarity between the classes will disappear as we progress. The danger, of course, is that we don't choose to progress, but instead return to 3rd edition, because 4e can't keep our interest.
Pick an attack ability (Wisdom)
Pick a defense (Reflex)
Pick a range (10 squares)
Pick damage (1d6 fire)
Pick one of the following extra effects: push, pull, slide, stun, daze, combat advantage, zone of effect (zone of effect: fire)
Based on the above, determine whether this is at-will, encounter or daily, based on some formula (at-will)
If Daily, determine the Miss effect, if any (none)
Based on the above, determine appropriate class for this power (Druid)
Based on that, determine the power's name (Flame Seed)
I wonder if every combination of every variable has been crunched into a database, and the last few steps just need to be done for the lifetime of 4e. New classes could be determined that way:
"I was browsing through the database, and found a Dex vs. Fortitude Range 5 2d6 + stun encounter power - what should we do with it?"
"Sounds like some sort of deftly-thrown implement that knocks someone out -- sounds like a Martial Controller to me. Let's call it the 'Flying Dagger' class. Next!"
Now I understand that, given the mechanics of the game, there are only so many combinations of things: we have six abilities to "attack" with, four defenses, four attack types (melee, ranged, burst, close burst), and then some creative damage and effects. So you might say of *course* they're going to start feeling similar.
And that's the point: in previous editions of D&D, those with "spellcasting" differed in large ways: arcane vs. divine, holy vs. nature, innate vs. learned. That let you easily tell the difference between them, and playing each of these classes was quite different. But now every class has spells (...by any other name...) and that's what's making these classes blur together.
Even just having the 3rd edition fighters and rogues using Feats instead of Powers was enough. Even having one defense score and three saving throws was enough for the classes' abilities to feel different. And this is the feeling that we seem unable to shake - that I'm casting Divine Leader attack at the goblin, that Griff is casting Arcane Controller attack, then a Martial Leader attack, a Martial Striker attack, etc. And while my numbers might be slightly different than Griffs, probably not much so, because my Cleric has his best score in Wisdom, and his in Intelligence, and so our rolls are coming out the same.
I've mentioned in the past that I've not read all of the powers for every class, and that certainly goes for those in the 10+ level range. So perhaps I'm speaking too soon, and perhaps this similarity between the classes will disappear as we progress. The danger, of course, is that we don't choose to progress, but instead return to 3rd edition, because 4e can't keep our interest.
Friday, April 18, 2008
I can count to 11 if I use my tail...
While looking at the latest few excerpts from the upcoming Monster Manual, and got thinking about a previous post I made regarding monster creation.
It has been mentioned that the creation of monster stats was going to become less algorithmic than it was in 3rd edition, which doesn't sit well with me. But looking at the sample monsters, it looks like it might not be so bad. Let's consider the succubus (sorry for you who aren't math nerds).
It's a level 9 "immortal humanoid". There are certain stats that we will always assume are calculated, such as Initiative; we're told that ability bonuses are still calculated as
ability bonus = (ability score-10)/2
but that all ability bonus calculations also add in level/2, so the succubus's Dexterity bonus is ((18-10)/2 + 9/2) = (4 + 4.5) = 8. And there's the Initiative +8, so it looks like it's calculated the same way as 3e. The same goes with Perception: no ranks listed below, so just the will bonus, also +8.
Hitpoints. This is what made me wonder if these were still being calculated. The succubus has 90hp, so that would be 10hp per level. But would the monsters progress like the player classes seem to, where on the first level, they get X plus their Constitution score, and on the other levels, they get Y plus their Constitution bonus? Or is it something simpler? Some playing with a spreadsheet can get me a few possibilities, but we'll have to try the same formula with other monsters to get an idea on which might be correct.
Armor class is 23 on the succubus. 10 is the base AC, so where's the rest from? According to dnd4.com/phb, we get our ability modifier (we'll assume with the half-level bonus), for 8 from our Dexterity, for a total of 18. Is there some natural armor in there? Do devils, or shapechangers, or immortal humanoids get a racial/type bonus to AC -- insight, infernal, etc.? Hrm.
The Fortitude save is base-10 plus 4 for the ability (either Str or Con, according to dnd4.com), and another 3 from ... somewhere. Reflex has base-10 plus 8 for ability, and another 3 from ... somewhere. Will has base-10 plus 10 for ability (higher of Charisma or Wisdom), and another 3 from ... somewhere. That "3 from somewhere" is nice and consistent; is it a racial bonus? A "type" bonus? A made-up bonus? Does this same bonus contribute 3 of the 5 points to AC that we don't know about (still leaving 2 other unaccounted, maybe natural armor, points)?
The to-hit calculations are interesting. The two melee attacks, Corrupting Touch and Charming Kiss, look like what would have been previously known as "touch attacks", though they don't seem to use the term. Before, that would mean that the target's AC would have to be modified, but perhaps the touch aspect is somehow being incorporated into the to-hit, instead? That doesn't really make sense, as the attacker would be getting that bonus against ACs based either on full armor or full Dexterity equally.
The succubus gets +14 on the two melee attacks. It's not clear whether we should use Strength or Dexterity for this -- there's no mention of a Weapon Finesse-like feat (if such a thing exists anymore), so either +4 or +8 is being contributed from the ability bonus (plus half-level bonus). Where does the other +10/+6 come from? Could this all be from weapon proficiency?
The ranged Dominate attack has +12. Something tells me that this isn't based on Dexterity, considering it's a mind-affecting ability, and that it attacks Will, so it's either going to be the succubus's Wisdom or Charisma bonus, +8 or +10. Where's the other +4/+2 coming from? It doesn't seem to be the same bonus as the unknown melee one. Different levels of proficiency?
Skills: Bluff = 10 for Charisma + 5 for, according to dnd4.com, "trained" skills. Diplomacy = 10 for Charisma + 5 trained, and Insight = 8 for Wisdom + 5 trained. Assuming I'm right that those are the succubus's trained skills, then it seems she gets no skill points. Was that mentioned somewhere - that monsters get no skill points? I remember they're not getting any feats... poor guys.
And finally, the ability scores themselves. In 3e, monsters had a starting array of three 10s and three 11s, modified by levels and class and such. If we assume the same starting array, then the succubus has +8 Dex, +8 Wis, +4 Int and +10 Cha. Some as racial gains, some as level gains? According to the chart at dnd4.com, there's racial bonuses at level one, and increases at 4 and 8. This is really arbitrary for now, but we can say that the succubus race gets +8 Dex, +8 Wis, +4 Int and +8 Cha as racial bonuses (wow!), and that the extra +2 Cha is from levelling up.
Okay, so we're about 50/50 on explaining the numbers so far. Let's look at the next monster on that page, the War Devil.
Initiative - check, it matches the Dexterity bonus. Perception - check, matches Wisdom.
Hit points. 255 doesn't divide into 22 very nicely, which means the number is either arbitrary (either to the war devil specifically, or to 22nd level monsters generally), or there's a bonus somewhere. Since the war devil is also an immortal humanoid, like the succubus, then we might assume that they have the same hit die. But no matter how I've tried to slice it, I can't come up with a formula that gives the same results for both the succubus and the war devil, discounting bonus hit points from somewhere. This might be a problem of having too few datasets, so let's leave it for now, and see if the rest of the war devil makes sense.
AC: 10-base, 17 from Dexterity... we're short by 8. Fortitude: 10-base, 18 from Constitution, or 19 from Strength - we're short by 6 or 5. Reflex is short by 5 if Dex is used, as is Will. A similar pattern to what we saw on the succubus. So where are these extra numbers coming from? They seem too low to be level-based, if they're only 5 over 22 levels for the war devil. Racial? Class based? I still suspect natural armor being the discrepancy between the AC missing bonus and the one for the saves.
To-hits on the war devil are in a similar position: the two melee attacks have the same bonus, which gives some promise to a formula in there somewhere, but how do we get to +26 from the +19 of Strength? +7 from weapon proficiency?
Skills: Intimidate +20. Looks good for +15 from Charisma and a +5 trained bonus.
And finally the ability scores. Assuming, again, a 10/10/10/11/11/11 array, we've immediately got a problem: the war devil doesn't have three even/three odd stats. Working backwards, the 22nd level war devil should have received 6 ability score increases (4,8,11,14,17,20), so we can reduce two of the extra odd ability scores down to even ones, and use the other four elsewhere. We're just guessing anyway, so let's say our bonuses are Strength +17 (14 + 3), Dexterity +13 (12 + 1), Wisdom +8, Constitution +14 (12 + 2), Intelligence +4, and Charisma +8. Why these numbers? Because even back in 3e, and as above on the succubus, bonuses tended to be in multiples of +4. The only exception is the Strength.
Okay, so some things make sense, but others are still unknown. I've made a lot of assumptions, and also used a lot of the stuff on dnd4.com (which I should really read all the way through, since they're more diligent than I am). Perhaps the standard array isn't so standard anymore. Perhaps monsters don't gain ability points at all. And yes, though I refuse to accept it, perhaps monsters are not generated in the way I want them to be. This won't stop me from trying to shoehorn them into a formula, though, and if that requires changing some monsters' stats, so be it! But damn it, if I want a Savage Species book for 4e, I'm damned well going to make one.
It has been mentioned that the creation of monster stats was going to become less algorithmic than it was in 3rd edition, which doesn't sit well with me. But looking at the sample monsters, it looks like it might not be so bad. Let's consider the succubus (sorry for you who aren't math nerds).
It's a level 9 "immortal humanoid". There are certain stats that we will always assume are calculated, such as Initiative; we're told that ability bonuses are still calculated as
ability bonus = (ability score-10)/2
but that all ability bonus calculations also add in level/2, so the succubus's Dexterity bonus is ((18-10)/2 + 9/2) = (4 + 4.5) = 8. And there's the Initiative +8, so it looks like it's calculated the same way as 3e. The same goes with Perception: no ranks listed below, so just the will bonus, also +8.
Hitpoints. This is what made me wonder if these were still being calculated. The succubus has 90hp, so that would be 10hp per level. But would the monsters progress like the player classes seem to, where on the first level, they get X plus their Constitution score, and on the other levels, they get Y plus their Constitution bonus? Or is it something simpler? Some playing with a spreadsheet can get me a few possibilities, but we'll have to try the same formula with other monsters to get an idea on which might be correct.
Armor class is 23 on the succubus. 10 is the base AC, so where's the rest from? According to dnd4.com/phb, we get our ability modifier (we'll assume with the half-level bonus), for 8 from our Dexterity, for a total of 18. Is there some natural armor in there? Do devils, or shapechangers, or immortal humanoids get a racial/type bonus to AC -- insight, infernal, etc.? Hrm.
The Fortitude save is base-10 plus 4 for the ability (either Str or Con, according to dnd4.com), and another 3 from ... somewhere. Reflex has base-10 plus 8 for ability, and another 3 from ... somewhere. Will has base-10 plus 10 for ability (higher of Charisma or Wisdom), and another 3 from ... somewhere. That "3 from somewhere" is nice and consistent; is it a racial bonus? A "type" bonus? A made-up bonus? Does this same bonus contribute 3 of the 5 points to AC that we don't know about (still leaving 2 other unaccounted, maybe natural armor, points)?
The to-hit calculations are interesting. The two melee attacks, Corrupting Touch and Charming Kiss, look like what would have been previously known as "touch attacks", though they don't seem to use the term. Before, that would mean that the target's AC would have to be modified, but perhaps the touch aspect is somehow being incorporated into the to-hit, instead? That doesn't really make sense, as the attacker would be getting that bonus against ACs based either on full armor or full Dexterity equally.
The succubus gets +14 on the two melee attacks. It's not clear whether we should use Strength or Dexterity for this -- there's no mention of a Weapon Finesse-like feat (if such a thing exists anymore), so either +4 or +8 is being contributed from the ability bonus (plus half-level bonus). Where does the other +10/+6 come from? Could this all be from weapon proficiency?
The ranged Dominate attack has +12. Something tells me that this isn't based on Dexterity, considering it's a mind-affecting ability, and that it attacks Will, so it's either going to be the succubus's Wisdom or Charisma bonus, +8 or +10. Where's the other +4/+2 coming from? It doesn't seem to be the same bonus as the unknown melee one. Different levels of proficiency?
Skills: Bluff = 10 for Charisma + 5 for, according to dnd4.com, "trained" skills. Diplomacy = 10 for Charisma + 5 trained, and Insight = 8 for Wisdom + 5 trained. Assuming I'm right that those are the succubus's trained skills, then it seems she gets no skill points. Was that mentioned somewhere - that monsters get no skill points? I remember they're not getting any feats... poor guys.
And finally, the ability scores themselves. In 3e, monsters had a starting array of three 10s and three 11s, modified by levels and class and such. If we assume the same starting array, then the succubus has +8 Dex, +8 Wis, +4 Int and +10 Cha. Some as racial gains, some as level gains? According to the chart at dnd4.com, there's racial bonuses at level one, and increases at 4 and 8. This is really arbitrary for now, but we can say that the succubus race gets +8 Dex, +8 Wis, +4 Int and +8 Cha as racial bonuses (wow!), and that the extra +2 Cha is from levelling up.
Okay, so we're about 50/50 on explaining the numbers so far. Let's look at the next monster on that page, the War Devil.
Initiative - check, it matches the Dexterity bonus. Perception - check, matches Wisdom.
Hit points. 255 doesn't divide into 22 very nicely, which means the number is either arbitrary (either to the war devil specifically, or to 22nd level monsters generally), or there's a bonus somewhere. Since the war devil is also an immortal humanoid, like the succubus, then we might assume that they have the same hit die. But no matter how I've tried to slice it, I can't come up with a formula that gives the same results for both the succubus and the war devil, discounting bonus hit points from somewhere. This might be a problem of having too few datasets, so let's leave it for now, and see if the rest of the war devil makes sense.
AC: 10-base, 17 from Dexterity... we're short by 8. Fortitude: 10-base, 18 from Constitution, or 19 from Strength - we're short by 6 or 5. Reflex is short by 5 if Dex is used, as is Will. A similar pattern to what we saw on the succubus. So where are these extra numbers coming from? They seem too low to be level-based, if they're only 5 over 22 levels for the war devil. Racial? Class based? I still suspect natural armor being the discrepancy between the AC missing bonus and the one for the saves.
To-hits on the war devil are in a similar position: the two melee attacks have the same bonus, which gives some promise to a formula in there somewhere, but how do we get to +26 from the +19 of Strength? +7 from weapon proficiency?
Skills: Intimidate +20. Looks good for +15 from Charisma and a +5 trained bonus.
And finally the ability scores. Assuming, again, a 10/10/10/11/11/11 array, we've immediately got a problem: the war devil doesn't have three even/three odd stats. Working backwards, the 22nd level war devil should have received 6 ability score increases (4,8,11,14,17,20), so we can reduce two of the extra odd ability scores down to even ones, and use the other four elsewhere. We're just guessing anyway, so let's say our bonuses are Strength +17 (14 + 3), Dexterity +13 (12 + 1), Wisdom +8, Constitution +14 (12 + 2), Intelligence +4, and Charisma +8. Why these numbers? Because even back in 3e, and as above on the succubus, bonuses tended to be in multiples of +4. The only exception is the Strength.
Okay, so some things make sense, but others are still unknown. I've made a lot of assumptions, and also used a lot of the stuff on dnd4.com (which I should really read all the way through, since they're more diligent than I am). Perhaps the standard array isn't so standard anymore. Perhaps monsters don't gain ability points at all. And yes, though I refuse to accept it, perhaps monsters are not generated in the way I want them to be. This won't stop me from trying to shoehorn them into a formula, though, and if that requires changing some monsters' stats, so be it! But damn it, if I want a Savage Species book for 4e, I'm damned well going to make one.
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