I’m currently devising some encounters to take my wife through with an eye to bringing in the whole family into a campaign if possible. Now, I needed some adversaries that are not in the book but I figured the book could offer good examples to work from so I could create them.

In looking at Skeletons and Beastmen, I see that Skeletons have defense ratings of 1/1, while Beastmen do not. I’m wondering why Skeletons have that 1/1 - is it because they are inherently bony creatures that edged and ranged weapons are not so good against? I don’t see armor in their stat block which I imagine would add to the defense rating.

I guess I’m just asking if the rating is a subjective thing that the creature creator assigns based on his/her ideas? Or is there some rule I’ve missed?

Sorry for the silly question, just stuck on it for some reason. Thanks!

It’s probably just to be different. In all honesty NPC’s can be whatever you want them to be. Defense is a great way to make them a bit tougher but still able to be hurt by weaker weapons. High Soak on the other hand is easier to hit but harder to injure

So in the case of skeletons I would think they are not as tough as an extra Soak, but hitting them can be harder and also more risky (Threat on the Setback)

Great that’s exactly what I needed. For some reason I thought I must have missed some rule somewhere...too much AD&D in my youth I think.

2 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:

So in the case of skeletons I would think they are not as tough as an extra Soak, but hitting them can be harder and also more risky (Threat on the Setback)

Oh my god! ... It's full of gaps!