I understand that the damage rating is in parenthesis after strength, but is that the damage I do as a monster on an attack (in addition to any effects from the action itself) or do I add the monsters strength plus the damage value in parenthesis?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Strength + Rating + stuff from the Action

Yea, I consider "The Parentheses System" of the bestiary to be unnecessarily retarded. Why list the deflection/defense with the Agility again? Oh yea..'just because.'

The stat block system needs to be improved and clarified. Right now, it's just "workable" and not optimized.

jh

(yes, it's a peeve of mine)

Think of the value in the parenthesis as the "default" weapon DR rating. This represents, for example, natural weapons such as claws, or even "generic" weapons that the enemy usually carries. So, as normal, St + DR = damage.

The same goes for the values after To and Ag. They represent the "default" soak and defense of, say, the enemy's tough hide/scales.

The GM is free to replace any of these three values with the values from specific equipment. However, these values allow the GM to use the enemy straight from the book, rather than having to individually alter equipment on NPCs, which is handy especially for non-essential NPC mooks and henchmen.