I can't remember now where I saw it mentioned -- here or on S-G? -- that the Beta version of the cleric lets him actually turn undead as opposed to, y'know, not being able to do that thing. Which is an improvement!

That said, I'm a little bothered by the new form it's taken. "A number of mindless undead equal to your level" seems to really hamstring the cleric and prevent the classic turn-the-vampire-with-your-holy-symbol trope. However, without monster levels, it's not so easy to quickly differentiate between various gradations of undead without GM fiat ("Well, no, the vampire lord obviously isn't turned, no, but those skeletons, yeah, they cower and back off").

What about using the one defensive monster stat that still remains -- Hit Points -- as the basis for accomplishing something like this? It seems like doing this could also recall how Turn Undead works in AD&D, too.

For example:
When you hold forth your holy symbol in a show of faith, roll+Cha. Compare the Hit Point total of every nearby undead being to the total of your roll. If  an undead's HP total is less than your roll, the undead is destroyed. If an undead's HP total is greater than your roll but less than twice your roll, it cowers at your power. If an undead's HP total is twice your roll or greater, it is unaffected.

Now, look. I know I like rolling dice, and tend to insert dice-rolling into DW in places where maybe other people wouldn't like it. But this strikes me as consistent with the core mechanic and more fun than the guaranteed certainty of number = level. And you get to make skeletons explode just by shouting at them.

Last week, I built a couple monsters, mostly by eyeballing existing monsters in the previous DW release. One of them was this Iron Dwarf, an automaton "programmed" to protect a particular part of the dungeon. The idea was that the party would encounter four of them at once. Here's what he looked like last week:

Iron Dwarf
Instinct: To follow orders with unyielding force

• Prevent entry into a room
• Shrug off a powerful blow as if it were nothing
• Advance relentlessly

Level 4, 9 HP, Armor 3, 6 damage (axe)

This version is largely the product of looking at several monsters, including the Dwarven Warrior, the Orc Bloodwarrior, the Clay Golem, and the Iron Golem. I knew about what level I wanted it to be, then used monsters of around the same level and/or theme to arrive at the numbers and moves. I anticipated the PCs would be level 2 or 3.

Under the new monster building guidelines in Beta 1.1, the Iron Dwarf now looks like this:

Iron Dwarf
Axe (24 damage Close) 10 HP 3 Armor
Instinct: To follow orders with unyielding force

• Prevent entry into a room
• Shrug off a powerful blow as if it were nothing
• Advance relentlessly

Nearly identical in all respects -- except damage, which got a huge bump. Before, these were resource-depleting opponents. They could do damage two or three times to nearly anyone without dropping them on hit points. Now, they're potential one-hit-killers.

Here's the rationale that went into the revision:
What's the most powerful foe it can kill in a fair fight? Soldier (base 6). If these things were built to defend a dwarven stronghold, they're going to expect to go up against enemy soldiers -- explicitly so, in fact.

How does it usually hunt or fight? Small group (4 -- damage = base x 4). Like I said, there are four of them.

What environment spawned it? Hospitable places (10 HP). The Iron Dwarves were built by dwarven artificers in a well-protected, civilized location.

What is its most important defense? Mail or scales (2 Armor). They're basically animated suits of plate armor, but I'm taking them down a notch (from 3 Armor to 2) due to their age and a lack of upkeep.

Which of these helps describe it? It actively defends itself (+1 Armor). I see them as axe-and-shield fighters.

Dealing 24 damage just seems like way too much to me, even accounting for the fact that characters have more HP now, and especially considering that really nothing has changed with the monster's concept. I could scale it back by saying that it's only capable of beating, say, a peasant in a fair fight, but that seems really disingenuous. I don't feel like I should have to "work the system" just to get its damage down to a manageable level. Alternately, I could say that it's meant to fight in larger groups (reducing its damage to 18), but that's not accurate either.

So... basically, this seems weird to me. I'm not saying I don't want it to be dangerous, but neither do I want it to be the serious killing machine it's kinda become. Most notable, IMO, is that its Armor and HP didn't really change (but PC damage output hasn't changed, so I guess that makes sense), while its damage output has spiked so much it now seems to be overcompensating for the increase in PC HP. Arguably, its damage should be even higher -- its armaments are vicious and obvious (+5 damage), it fights by skill instead of instinct (+3 damage), etc. -- but I'm not going there.

What am I missing?

(EDIT: The other monster I made, BTW, was a green slime, but that doesn't lend itself to many easy answers for the monster-building questions.)