Mike Mearls Games
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Monster Mash. I Mean, Math
🕑 Added 2025-02-11 14:00:15 +0000 UTCI thought about designing some monsters but realized a few things. First and foremost, I am swamped with work right now. I also thought it would be interesting to pull back the curtain on the math behind Odyssey.
Attached to this post is an Excel spreadsheet that breaks down the basic math behind Odyssey. It shows off how much damage the typical fighter deals per round. It uses that as the basis for the math behind the other classes, then feeds that into a simple spread sheet you can use to build mooks and troopers.
Mooks are creatures that are meant to outnumber the party 2:1 in a typical encounter, 4:1 in a tough encounter, or match them 1:1 in an easy encounter.
Troopers are meant to fight the party on a 1:1 basis in a typical encounter, outnumber them 2:1 in a tough fight, and be outnumbered them on a 1:2 basis in an easy fight.
You can mix and match troopers and minions. A party of four characters might face four minions and two troopers for an equal fight.
Ability bonuses are not attached to attacks, damage, and AC. By design, I want to keep things simple and just let you plug in the numbers you want for a creature.
This spreadsheet allows you to enter an AC to determine HP, and enter an attack bonus to determine damage.
Have fun! I'm looking forward to seeing what you create.
Comments
Micah Green
Tying AC to HP and Attack bonus to damage is so clean. It seems obvious now that you said it!
TH
I like this. I've been following your progress mostly to see the design process, but this is really cool. 5e's monster math is all over the place. Exposing the final math in an Appendix would be dope.
