It’s been upped by about 1/2 point per monster level, to 8-plus-monster-level damage, which means that I might not have to throw level-plus-four monsters at PCs anymore to challenge them. The change to monster damage, though, is the big improvement in Monster Manual 3. Here you can see Greg Bilsend’s reasoning for the change. There is less variation between the roles: for instance, every role has a to-hit bonus of around 5 plus monster level. With Monster Manual 3, the algorithm for building monsters has gotten even easier. This cut down the Monster Manual to about a page. of each monster role, along with the damage expressions from DMG page 42. A while ago, I started running monsters using a cheat sheet listing the average defenses, hit points, etc. Really, though, there’s a lot of excess poundage in the Monster Manual that I don’t use every session. If I want to run my Crowliphaunt as a level 12 elite brute, I can open the monster manual, look up a level 12 elite brute (flesh golem, for instance), and use its attack bonus, defenses, hit points, and damage expressions, swapping in my own damage types, status effects, and bizarre special abilities. What I like the Monster Manual for is that it provides me numbers. Once I come up with the idea of a giant roc with four elephant heads, I don’t need a Monster Manual to tell me that it has a fly speed, can make four grab attacks, and that it drops armored PCs onto sharp rocks to get at the food inside. I like to come up with my own monsters on the fly.

D&d monster stats