Even more changes in Monster Manual 3: Clumsy soldiers, miss effects

The other day I commented on some of the exciting new changes in Monster Manual 3, like the overall damage increase and the accuracy adjustment to the Brute role. It seems there were still a few surprises left, though. A new blog post from D&D editor Greg Bilsland provides some background on the new monster design philosophy, as well as a couple of details that we had missed earlier.

To begin with, monsters with the Soldier role will no longer be downright better than the rest. Previously, Soldiers had many unique advantages (good AC, accuracy, ability to defend) without a real downside - so they were great both in offense and defense. In MM3, soldiers are losing their extra +2 bonus to accuracy, so their attacks will only be average now, and brutes will actually be able to outdamage them.

More importantly, the differences between roles have been emphasized, so you can expect soldiers that mark (which were strangely uncommon) to come up more often, and the same with Skirmishers with mobility features, lurkers with hiding abilities, and controllers with control effects. Also, these abilities should not be completely reliant on hitting: monster powers with "Miss" and "Effect" lines will be more common now, so that role-essential functions are more or less guaranteed.