This is a common misconception. It is often expanded upon by saying that since you hit 5% more often, you do 5% more damage overall and effects caused by a successful hit are imposed 5% more often. These later statements would be true if the original assumption wasn’t flawed.

A bonus of +1 to hit increases your chance to hit by 5%. That is quite different from hitting 5% more often. In addition, your chance to hit does not always increase by 5%.

Let’s take the exceptions first. If you have a +7 combat modifier (from level, strength, etc) and are attacking a creature with an armor class of 30, you can only hit on a roll of 20 (which is always a hit). Therefore, you have a 5% chance to hit. If you then receive a bonus of +1 to hit, your combat modifier increases to +8. Unfortunately, you still only hit on a roll of 20. Your chance to hit is unaffected by the +1 to hit bonus. But then, the guy in our example should have been running away screaming instead of trying to slug it out.

A more common example would be at the other end of the spectrum. If you have a combat modifier of +12 and are attacking a creature with an armor class of 10, you will only miss on a roll of 1 (which is always a miss). Therefore, you have a 95% chance to hit. A bonus of +1 to hit won’t change that. No matter how many pluses you have, a roll of 1 will always be a miss.

Middle of the Road

So let’s put extremes aside. If you have a combat modifier of +12 and are attacking a creature with an armor class of 15, you need to roll 3 or higher to hit. That means that you have a 90% chance to hit. A bonus of +1 to hit increases your chance to hit to 95%. To determine how much more often you will hit, divide 95% by 90%. In this example, you will hit 5.56% more often. That’s a little more than 5% but nothing to get very excited about.

The harder the creature is to hit though, the more you gain from that +1 bonus. If you have a combat modifier of +12 and are attacking a creature with an armor class of 30, you need a roll of 18 or better to hit. That means you have a 15% chance to hit. A bonus of +1 increases that to a 20% chance to hit. That’s the same 5% increase in your chance to hit. However, in this case, that +1 bonus allows you to hit 33% (20% divided by 15%) more often!

Diminishing Returns

An obvious result is that each additional +1 bonus to hit has less and less impact on how often you hit.

Previously, I've always run a v2 game with substantial changes and house rules. We've always rolled initiative per side instead of individually. In the past I'd finish my attacks and say "it's your turns", and be bombarded with information from various players at once. Our other DMs have always used the same system so it just seemed normal to do it that way. Having seen individual initiative described, I thought it just sounded unnecessarily complicated and really couldn't see that it gained you anything.

Boy was I wrong! I had seen individual initiative in action once a few weeks ago and was really impressed at how smoothly it ran. Testing it out, even with just one player running two characters, I could see that I was going to love it. First off, it should significantly reduce the chaos. Second, I think it will bring out more tactical thinking. Each player is "in the spotlight" on their turn instead of just anonymously going through the motions which should lead to more thought going into what they are doing. Lastly, no one can do anything during someone else's turn so instead of everyone focusing on their own actions they can assist the player whose turn it is with suggestions and help. For new or shy players, this should be a tremendous boon.

The process of creating characters went very well. There are a few things that I don't have finished up and those were the main hurdles. No surprise there. A couple of omissions on the character sheet became apparent so I'll have to make some modifications to account for them. Again, this was pretty much expected.

During play, I tried to pay particular attention to attacks of opportunity, combat advantage, and second wind. None of my group has ever formally used these things in our games. We've developed some common sense combat rules that we loosely use to cover the first two.

It was interesting to try out some hard and fast rules on opportunity attacks and combat advantage. I have to say though that I didn't care for either one. Our games have always tried to focus on the story and hurry through the combat. These rules, although adding realism, look to me to put more emphasis on the combat, and stretch out battles while not adding anything significant to the experience.

Second Wind also didn't impress me. Healing is the Cleric's domain. Supplementing that with potions and other magical items is one thing but giving each character the ability to simply heal themselves just doesn't fit into my view of the game. Beyond that, I can't rationalize giving characters an ability like that without also giving it to the monsters. Monsters being able to use a Second Wind would just be annoying and unnecessarily prolong combat.

All in all, I was very unimpressed with these three rules. I'm going to dump all three and try to formalize the rules I've used in the past to replace them.

Powers, feats, and skills, on the other hand, worked out nicely. Once we become more familiar with powers, I think they will become a favorite addition. Feats worked nicely but many aren't appropriate with some of the changes that I've made. I've been hesitant to alter them too much but I've changed my stance on that. I'm going to start with a clean slate. I'll add my own and then review what's in the books and add some of them as need be.

I've gone back and forth on the whole heroic/paragon/epic tier thing. It's felt wrong to me since the beginning and now I've made the decision to dump them. All feats will become just feats, no longer separated by tier. Some will have requirements that make them difficult to get until higher level. Instead of having feats that offer different benefits based on your tier, there will be two feats. One will have the initial benefits, the other will have the advanced benefits. The advanced one may have a level requirement, an ability requirement (that you shouldn't be able to meet till higher levels), or require the first feat as a prerequisite. In this last case, requiring two feats to gain the advanced benefits either means waiting till higher levels (when you have feats to spare) or to sacrifice another feat to make room for it. All in all, I'm much happier with feats now and confident in their role.

Similarly, some of the powers don't fit in with some of the changes that I'm making so I will need to go through and revamp some of them. Over all though, they look wonderful. As I said earlier, we just need to get more familiar with them.

I'm loving skills and the whole DC thing. We've been using a similar system since long before it was introduced but never on this scale. I never warmed to how skills were laid out in 3.0 but the new setup seems very well thought out. I did rename Heal to First Aid but that's pretty minor.

I added a new skill called Alchemy. Before I go into that perhaps I should digress a moment and discuss some of the reasoning that led to it.

I don't like the idea that when you find a magical item you immediately know what it is. Neither do my players. However, the alternative is that you have to expend time, money, and effort to determine what it is. Furthermore, and more importantly, unidentified items tend to get shoved into a bag and dealt with back in town at the end of the night when everyone's tired and busy wrapping things up.

So let's say that a character with a high Arcana skill is "in tune" with magic to the point that she can simply hold a magical item and sense its particular magical properties via an Arcana skill roll. Okay, I can accept that. Special items would then have a high DC which would lead to a need for identify, legend lore, or consultation with a sage.

But I have trouble extending that process to potions. First off, I've determined that magical items give off a subtle static charge when touched (in order to save time in detecting magic) but potion bottles do not since it is the potion, not the bottle, that is magic.

Following that reasoning, touching the bottle can't be enough to divine the properties of the potion. Tasting the potion has never seemed like a reasonable approach to me and what wizard would be willing to taste every vial you come across? Some will contain poison after all.

All this led me around to the Alchemy skill. By observing the color, density, opacity, reflectivity and consistency of a potion, a skilled alchemist can determine with some certainty what type of potion it is. I can buy that.

Further, a skilled alchemist will be familiar with what components are useful in the art of alchemy. When your party has killed a Bulette, an Alchemy roll may offer knowledge on whether or not any parts (such as the scales) may be desirable as well as particulars on removing them without damaging them.

I haven't decided yet if I want to expand this to the point where characters can actually produce alchemical potions and products but that is certainly a possibility.

Although we only ran through a few encounters, it was enough to show that, for the most part, the changes I have been making are all working together. More importantly, the time we spent forced me to look at things from a new perspective and finally make some decisions about rules that I've been on the fence about.

I'm anxious to finalize all the rules, print it all up and move on to database creation, writing some utilities, drawing maps and dungeons, and preparing a story.

Some of the wholesale changes I use today owe their existance to this brainstorming session.

I haven't changed anything other than to add some formatting. A lot of it is pretty cryptic and some of it won't make any sense to anyone but me. I thought that it was better to post it in its original form though, instead of coloring it with my current opinions.

It isn't intended to be anything other than entertaining. A lot of it deals with game mechanics that don't even exist anymore (THAC0, etc) and some of the ideas are downright silly.

It is, however, a good example of how to brainstorm. Don't worry about whether an idea is good or bad, just throw down on paper whatever comes to mind and go through it later to see if it produced anything useful.

For good or bad, here it is… Enjoy!

1. Abilities
   • 3d6 is not sufficiently restrictive of the extremes.
   • Alternative ability generation methods teach players to expect all 15's or better.
   • 3-18 range does not allow much room for improvement from initial scores.
   • Exceptional Strength scores between 18 STR and 19 STR are annoying.
   • Ability Tables are either linear or nearly exponential. There should be a more gradual rise permitting expansion.
   • Ability Table values seem randomly selected in places. Reevaluate all info.
2. Hit Points (HP)
   • Hit Points are increased to simulate increased fighting ability.
   • A fighter should not be able to fight indefinitely without tiring.
   • There shouldn't be such a huge difference in Hit Points between classes.
3. PCs vs. hirelings, henchmen and followers.
   • Consider one character per player (at a time) with numerous hirelings, henchmen and followers.
   • Party members die. It is less painful to have a henchman die forever than to lose a PC.
   • Do players have enough information to run a non-human PC? An Elf is NOT a human with funny ears!
4. Race
   • Why would non-human PCs live exclusively in human cities?
   • If PCs are allowed to be non-human they should know their centuries-long pre-adventuring history.
5. Class
   • Shouldn't all PCs have, or be able to learn, at least limited ability in the other classes?
   • Consider making all PCs Fighter/Wizard/Cleric/Thieves and let them assign EP as desired.
6. Alignment
   • If this is to be meaningful then it should be revamped.
   • Should it be enforced? What are the consequences of deviation?
7. Armor Class (AC)
   • Heavy armor should slow you down and make you easier to hit not harder.
   • Armor should absorb damage.
8. Combat
   • Needs a massive overhaul to incorporate changes in HPs, AC, etc.
   • Needs Critical Hit and Fumble Tables
   • Needs a better system of unarmed combat (Wrestling, Overbearing, Subduing)
   • Review Surprise, Initiative, and Weapon Speed
9. Damage
   • It would be less confusing if all weapons did (1d10 + modifier) of damage.
   • A dagger (1d4 damage) should be able to kill someone.
   • Bows and crossbows should do a lot more damage.
   • If armor absorbs damage, weapons will have to do more damage.
10. Clerics
    • If a cleric can kill someone, why not with a sword? Selecting a weapon should be a personal choice.
    • Why must the spells be selected in advance?
11. Wizards
    • Wearing armor should be a personal choice.
    • Selecting a weapon should be a personal choice.
    • A spell energy system would work more smoothly. Energy should be regained nightly.
    • There is no need to relearn (memorize) spells each day. Once learned, spells should not be forgotten.
    • Consider Critical Cast and Fumble Tables for spells.
    • Define where magical energy comes from, how it is accessed and what repercussions this may have.
    • Can more powerful magic be performed by reading from a book, performing a ritual or working in groups?
    • Wizards should be able to attempt higher level spells.
    • Highly intelligent wizards should have a better chance of casting spells.
    • Lower level wizards should be able to create low quality magical items.
12. Thieves
    • Wearing armor should be a personal choice.
    • Selecting a weapon should be a personal choice.
13. Fighters
    • If all classes can wear any armor and use any weapon, then what is the benefit of being a fighter?
14. Experience Points (EP)
    • Why are there different progression tables for each class? If valid, then why not for each race as well?
    • Progression tables are too steep. They make upper levels unattainable.
    • Stress EP is given for resolving situation NOT swinging swords and casting spells.
    • EP is giving 1:1 for each GP of treasure retrieved and secured.
    • Should level progression be automatic or require short training sessions, as per book?
15. Treasure
    • A shop keeper may earn 100-1000 GP per year. Why would a group of 4 orcs carry this much with them?
    • Many monsters have no use for treasure. They will not stockpile it. They will leave it at the kill site.
    • Not all treasure is limited to GPs. Consider trade goods, information, gratitude of powerful people, etc.
    • Treasure is heavy and bulky, hard to transport, store and sometimes even to exchange.
    • Few people can afford to purchase valuable gems from characters.
16. Magical Items
    • Magical items DO NOT have a set price. PCs must set the value of each item themselves.
    • Few people can afford to purchase valuable magical items from characters.
    • There should be common magical items for sale, such as Continual Light cast on items.
    • If a sword can be intelligent, why not other objects?
17. Gems
    • Gem type and value determination is bulky.
18. Art Objects
    • There is no system to determine type of art object.
    • Value determination is bulky.
19. Spells
    • Do away with material components except for spells that would be too powerful without a monetary restriction.
    • Many spells require rewording, definition, adjustment, level shift, or deletion.
    • Not all spells are necessarily available to be learned.
20. Getting Rich
    • Successful adventurers WILL be noticed.
    • Where do you store your treasure where it will be safe? If there are banks, what do they charge?
    • If you search a ruined castle, how will the displaced heirs react to you taking their family heirlooms?
    • A group of powerful adventurers will make the Monarch very nervous.
    • A large enough influx of hard currency into a city will certainly effect the local economy.
21. Time
    • One minute rounds during combat are ridiculous. Try 10-Second rounds but leave turns as 10 minutes.
22. Movement
    • Consider 12 movement meaning 120 feet per (10-second) round during combat. (8.2 MPH)
23. Encumbrance
    • Clothes and/or armor worn, as well as bulky equipment, will restrict movement to a maximum speed.
    • Weight carried will restrict movement as well. The most restrictive of the two will determine movement speed.
    • Encumbrance, due to unwieldy garb or weight, will restrict AC bonuses due to agility.
24. Light
    • Humans require light to see.
    • Demi-humans with infravision either see without light (would see undead) or see heat sources (would not).
    • High demand for efficient light sources would create a varied supply including Continual Light on objects.
25. Campfires while sleeping
    • The light and smoke from a campfire will attract the attention of all people and creatures for quite a distance.
    • Once attracted, non-intelligent creatures, afraid of fire, will avoid a campfire unless particularly hungry.
26. Movement
    • PCs may move 1/3 their movement in MPH at a brisk walk all day (with breaks)
    • PCs may move 1/2 their movement in MPH at a jog for short periods.
    • PCs may move their movement in MPH at a run for brief periods.
    • PCs may move x times their movement in MPH at an extreme run momentarily. Determine x. (1.5 ?)
    • Horses may move the same as PCs
27. Sleeping
    • PCs must sleep 6+ hours per night to be at normal effectiveness.
28. Healing
    • Determine natural healing rate.
29. Spell Energy Recovery
    • Determine Spell Energy recovery rate

Proposed Modifications to AD&D Rules system

Each player may run only one character at a time. However, more than one character may be rolled up in case of an untimely demise. Each character may hire as many hirelings as she desires and may attract henchmen and followers as well.

Six Ability Scores will each be rolled using 4d6 and generating a range of 4-24. These scores will be assigned by the player, as desired, to the six abilities: Strength (STR), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), and Charisma (CHR).

Player Characters (PCs) are always Human but hirelings, henchmen, and followers may be Human or Demi-Human: Elf, Half-Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Hobbit.

PCs will start out, at 1st level, as either a Fighter, Wizard, Priest, or Rogue and 0-level in the other three categories. As the character gains experience (EP), the player will assign the EP as Fighter EP, Wizard EP, Priest EP, or Rogue EP (Assuming, of course, that the character meets the minimum ability score requirements for that class). When enough EP is gained to take the character to the next level (Initially 2nd level in primary class or 1st level in any of the others), the character must be trained by a higher level character (in that class) before gaining the benefits of the new level.

Training is offered in all cities and some villages at a typical cost of 100 GP per week per level to be attained, with training taking from 1 to 6 weeks. Alternatively, a character one or more levels higher (in the appropriate class) than the level to be attained may perform the training, although the time involved is typically doubled and the fee is up to the individuals involved. Note that training precludes all other activities during this time.

Unarmored characters have an Armor Class (AC) of 10 modified by their agility. Armor will INCREASE AC due to its weight and encumbrance but will absorb some of the potential damage. Shields will decrease AC by one against 1, 2, 3, or 4 attackers depending upon the type of shield. Each plus of magical armor or shield also decreases AC by one. Additionally, AC decreases as the character goes up in level.

Any character may wear leather armor and use any basic weapon. A character must be 1st level as a fighter to use metal armor (excluding plate) and to use advanced weapons, and 2nd level as a fighter to use plate and complex weapons.

All weapons do 1d8 points of damage adjusted by a weapon type modifier. Ability scores and magical enhancements will adjust this as well.

All characters have 15 points to distribute amongst the Rogue abilities. At 1st level and each level thereafter as a Rogue, the character may distribute an additional 15 points. Note that many of the Rogue abilities may not be performed in certain types of armor and/or when encumbered.

No magical abilities from the Wizard class are available until attaining at least 1st level as a Wizard.

No clerical abilities from the Priest class are available until attaining at least 1st level as a Priest. Note that a Priest is giving her powers at the discretion of the particular god that Priest worships and each god may have special requirements of her Priests, restricting armor usage, weapon usage, alignment, sex, etc. This may even preclude certain class ability use (Such as the Paladins of Heronious who must be of Lawful Good alignment, start out as a Priest, and never gain EP as a Rogue or Wizard).

The damage a PC may withstand before losing consciousness is referred to as her Hit Points (HP). These consist of Endurance (the average of STR and CON) and Fatigue (the average of STR and DEX). Endurance represents the actual physical damage the body may withstand while Fatigue represents the character's ability to twist and turn so as to avoid taking actual physical damage. Normally, damage is first deducted from Fatigue and when that is exhausted, from Endurance. A critical hit and certain spells and attack forms will affect Endurance directly. When Endurance falls to zero, regardless of Fatigue, the character falls unconscious and is considered to be "at death's door". Each round thereafter, the character's condition will worsen, losing 1 point of Endurance per round. When Endurance reaches -10 the character dies but may be raised by a high level Priest if done in time. At -50 the character is irretrievably lost.

Endurance is recovered naturally at a rate of 1 point per 6 hours of bedrest. Fatigue is recovered at a rate of 1 point per hour of low activity (sleeping, sitting around, standing guard). Either may be restored through the use of various spells.

Attack rolls are made on a 20-sided dice (1d20) based on the normal THAC0. A roll of 1 indicates a potential fumble. Roll again with a miss confirming the fumble. On a confirmed fumbled, the number rolled to confirm the fumble is subtracted from the number needed to avoid the fumble. This number determines the result of the fumble. A roll of 20 indicates a potential critical hit. Roll again with a hit confirming the critical. On a confirmed critical, the number required to hit, plus one, is subtracted from the number rolled to confirm the critical. This number is used to determine the result of the critical hit. Note that this means that a character that doesn't need very much to hit cannot fumble very badly but may get a powerful critical hit. Conversely, a character that needs a lot to hit can get a minor critical hit but has the potential of a nasty fumble.

Wizards and Priests both use spell energy based on their level and Intelligence. When casting a spell, the caster rolls 1d12 and multiplies this by the level of the spell being cast. A 1 indicates a potentially fumbled spell while a 12 indicates a potentially extraordinarily well cast spell. See the appropriate tables for details. If all went well then the spell was cast, if being attempted by a Priest. If attempted by a Wizard then the Percent Chance for Success must be rolled. See appropriate table. Note that this table allows a chance for highly intelligent Wizards to attempt higher level spells and handicaps less intelligent Wizards. Average intelligence Wizards are more or less unaffected.

If the spell energy rolled reduced the caster to zero or less, then the spell fails. Additionally, if reduced to zero energy, the Wizard or Priest falls into a coma, which may last for days (1d100 hours). If the caster was a Wizard and she was reduced to less than zero energy, then for each point below zero, the Wizard loses the memory of one spell (selected at random). The spell(s) forgotten may be relearned at the normal rate (see below) but the Wizard must have access to his books (or another's) in order to do this.

Priest spells are granted directly by the individual god so they need not be learned nor may they be forgotten.

A Wizard, however, must learn each spell that she ever intends to cast (or relearn in the situation described above). This is done by studying the spell instructions. It will take a number of hours equal to (25 minus the Wizard's Intelligence) times the level of the spell. Normally, casting a spell does not cause the Wizard to lose the memory of the spell.

This is a continuation of yesterday's article How Much Treasure Should You Give Out

Not All Encounters Are Equal

If you encounter two identical groups of bandits at different sections of the same road, the two groups won't necessarily be carrying the same amount of treasure. In terms of treasure parcels, as described in the DMG, one group could have two or even three parcels while the other has none. One group could be luckier than the other. One could have just come from town where they spent all their loot. One could have just come from robbing a wealthy merchant on the road. There are all sorts of reasons why amount of treasure could vary significantly.

Beyond that, not all creatures can carry treasure. Others have no interest in what most people would consider treasure. These types of creatures, after having done in a party of adventurers, wouldn't bother to carry off the treasure; they would either have no interest in it or lack the ability to carry it.

This means three things. First, as I've already pointed out, these creatures would have no treasure on them. Second, if they didn't carry the treasure off, it would simply be left at the battle site waiting for someone to come by and pick it up (unless of course someone else found it first). Third, the carcasses could have been dragged off to the creature's lair (or some scavenger found them later and dragged them off to its lair). This later case would explain incidental treasure in the lair of a creature that otherwise wouldn't be interested in treasure.

What Is Treasure?

When you say "treasure" most people immediately think of coins and magic items. A typical treasure may also include gems, jewelry, artwork, sculptures, and other objects d' art. But what about adventuring gear and supplies? Armor and weapons? Food and drink? Merchant wares? These are all things that adventurers need and can sell. Wizards and alchemists need rare herbs, blood of magical creatures, scale of a dragon, or similarly difficult to obtain items. Certainly these should be considered treasure.

If the party comes across a well-fortified wizard tower and defeats the wizard and his defenders, the furnishings in the tower are obviously treasure but what about the tower itself? Depending on the location, this could be a tremendous treasure! And isn't it a wizard's tower? All wizards have spell books and they are likely to be secreted in the tower somewhere. These could be extremely valuable, either to a wizard in the party or for sale in town.

Availability of Magical Items

The availability of magical items in your world is a subject deserving at least a full article all by itself. Let me just briefly say that you should give some thought to how common you want magic to be and whether or not you allow characters (or NPCs) to create magic items.

Economy

Similarly, the economy is a huge subject that should be given a great deal of thought. If a group of first level characters can trudge around for a week and come back with thousands of gold coins, how many peasants are going to be willing to continue their daily toll for 5 copper pieces a day? Certainly, adventuring is dangerous but with that kind of disparity, you're not going to see many peasants around for long.

What Kind Of Market Is There To Sell Items

If you come back from a lengthy adventure, weighted down with rare urns, priceless jewelry and crates of magic items all for sale, where do you take them? Most villages won't have anyone with the ready funds to buy all your treasures. Even large cities may not have the ability to pay what some of your high level magic items are worth.

To Sum Up

These are just a few considerations to think about. Each subject deserves to be greatly expanded, but I just wanted to throw out the topics to give you something to think about.

Every DM has a set of encounter tables. Yet no one ever seems to talk about them. I've never seen them mentioned in any set of core books or on gaming blogs. Some modules list them. But no one discusses their importance or offers tips on creating them. It's time to change all that.

What Are Encounter Tables

An encounter table is a list of monsters that PCs could encounter in a given area along with d100 results next to each entry. You would then roll 1d100 and look up your results on the table to see what monster was encountered.

Here is a simple encounter table. Typically, there would be details on each encounter listed after the table as well. For instance, the first monster listed on the table is "2d4 Kobolds". That tells you that there will be two to eight kobolds but it doesn't say what type or how they are equipped. That info would be listed in the encounter details.

Why Are Encounter Tables Important?

They aren't critical. You can easily get by without them. However, they serve as a list of what creatures are common to the area along with relative odds of encountering each type.

Beyond that, they are an aid to the DM to help come up with level-appropriate encounters for a given area without having to come up with something on the spot. As a DM you have plenty to remember and more to improvise all the time. Anything that can help you out is bound to make the game run more smoothly.

Creating an Encounter List

Fortunately, encounter lists are very easy to create. Make a list of all the creatures that are known to live in the area. Add to that other creatures that you think are likely to be in or wandering through the area. Don't forget non-combat encounters such as wandering healers or patrols from town. You can also have an "encounter" with an object. The party could discover the remains of another party of adventurers that didn't fare so well with an object on one of them that could start a whole adventure. Or they could stumble upon a cave with a teleportation portal to who knows what.

All of the encounters should be within a few levels of each other. The list is just an extension of what creatures populate the area and creatures in an area tend to be of about the same level.

Once you have a list, assign a weight to each entry (the number of times out of 100 that a particular encounter should come up). All of these numbers need to add up to exactly 100 though so when you roll 1d100, all of the results are tied to a monster. The easiest way to do this is to divide 100 by the number of entries you have. Then add or subtract from individual entries until everything totals 100 and you have the distribution you want.

Lastly, describe each encounter with whatever you need to be able to quickly create the encounter from the description. As in the earlier example, "2d4 Kobolds" doesn't give you much. You could detail what type of kobolds and what armor/weapons they are using. Listing what book the monster is detailed in and the page number would be very helpful.

I Have an Encounter Table. Now What?

Having an encounter table for the area surrounding the town that new characters begin in is a good start. When they travel to the swamp south of there, the monsters that they encounter should be different. You will need a new table for that. When they follow the path up into the hills and discover the ancient temple hidden there, you will need a new table for that.

Basically, every large area will need its own table. Many smaller sections of those areas (marsh, forest, hills, etc) will need their own table. Each dungeon should have a separate table. All of these areas are different and players should encounter different monsters in each of them. It can be a lot of work but if you have just one table for everywhere (or even just one for each level or few levels), players will get bored of having the same encounters over and over.

Tips on Creating Encounter Tables

The monster manual has a list of monsters in the back, broken down by level. You could start by making one table for each level. I wouldn't recommend using these tables all the time but instead have them for emergencies when you just need a quick monster of that level. Once you have these tables ready, use them as templates for areas in your world that are inhabited by monsters of that level. Be sure to note which ones are from temperate zones and which live in the arctic, which live on high peaks and which live in swamps. Make sure each list is made up of monsters that you think would live in that area.

Another approach is to go over your maps and define rough guidelines for different areas of your world: level of monsters, danger level (highly patrolled and managed or over-run with monsters) , climate, etc. Then go through the monster manual one creature at a time and decide which areas that creature would live in. Build lists as you go for each area.

A well thought-out and well-placed monster population has a huge impact on your world. If there is a plan behind what lives where instead of complete randomness and a chance of any monster appearing anywhere in the world, your players will see the difference. This is one of those things that breathes life into a campaign. Spend the time and you will see the benefit.