Monster PCs, Bestiary I: Suggestions and Observations

"Have I failed my daughter? Then let the father die."

"And let the monster rise."


I've been thinking about last week's post a lot. I didn't really stress the disadvantage of being so down on intelligence enough, but overall it went pretty well. Ogre's combination of stat boosts and low CR means it's going to be the uber example of monster PCs, and this week I've flipped through the first Pathfinder Bestiary to discuss what you could allow and what you shouldn't. I feel this is going to be a better way to convey monster balance, because the abilities some of these types get are pretty varied. Plus, maybe I get to inspire a few character concepts along the way. This is kind of a read-along, and I apologize for that, but if I talked about every single stat a monster has we'll be here all day since I'm going through the entire book. If you don't have a book handy, all of these monsters are up on pfsrd.com.

Before we get started, I want to point out that the save DC of a supernatural ability will rise as a monster gains levels, since the formula is always 10 plus 1/2 hit dice plus an ability mod. The terms "HD" and "levels" are interchangeable in 3.0, 3.5, and Pathfinder. So, you can't look at the save DC of an ability as a mitigating factor to allow it or not. Unlike spell-likes, the save DC on a supernatural ability will always be a competitive one.

Also expect me in this and in future editions to conditionally allow some of these monsters, by editing or removing things, mostly supernatural abilities or spell-likes. This is because it's a damn shame to disallow a whole monster when it's so close to acceptable. In these instances, I heavily recommend you keep their lack of that ability in-character and work with the player for a reason.

Good examples are in turquoise. Bad examples are in red. I did want to include some of them to show my thought process. Some monsters are deceptively bad for player use, or even deceptively fine. As you'll see me say a lot, not all "at-will" spells are a big deal.


Awakened Ape, Gorilla. CR2, HD3. Magical beast. I'm putting this here for two reasons: the first is to talk in general about awakened animals. The second is that A goes first in the alphabet. Stat-wise, gorilla is a pretty good candidate for a PC if he's been the subject of an Awaken spell. He's got decent stat boosts, you can't argue him wearing magic items or armor, even if the armor would be specially tailored. Plus, there's intelligent gorillas all over popular culture.

Awaken has to be taken with a grain of salt, though. its core rules are to change it to magical beast, give the animal two more HD, 3D6 INT, and +1d3 CHA. I suggest taking this to mean the animal gets no INT or CHA bonus or penalty, and to knock off the two bonus HD. This is because two more HD is simply going to fuck all the math up and give the player two moderately crappy HD he'd rather not want. Awaken doesn't say, but I imagine he'd have to pay for those HD with another point of CR, which I'm sure he doesn't want.

As for other animals...well, a lot of them just don't fit a PC or provide a really daunting challenge to him. Even if you say a dog, wolf or tiger has all the magic item slots a human has...he still don't have hands. I mean, no animal is truly out of line so long as they're between sizes tiny and large, and some of them DO basically have hands. Depending on the tone of your game, allowing someone to play a Raccoon Sorcerer would be pretty memorable. Your Mileage May Vary, I guess.


Hound Archon. CR4, HD6. Outsider. Modifications: 2 less HD, removal of Greater Teleport, possible reduction to natural armor. If someone wants to play an angel type, REALLY an angel type and not just a Half-Celestial or Aasimar, there's not many options. They're just too powerful and don't have a whole host of various low-CR monsters like the evil outsiders do. This character would get decent stat boosts, Aura of Menace which is a sort of soft-taunt, and some decent spell-likes in addition to the standard outsider immunities. His HD are a bit of a problem, and expect me to suggest this with a lot of outsiders. Outsider HD are pretty good, with 6+INT skills, 1:1AB and two good saves. If you're worried about him being ahead on AB, definitely knock his HD down a bit. As for his spell-likes, they're pretty decent, with being able to slap Aid on everyone he knows before a fight and having a constant magic circle vs evil, but only Greater Teleport is the problem. Even though it's self only, it means getting around a lot of situational or geographic problems which may or may not be important in your game. At-will spells aren't normally that bad, but for greater teleport it is. As for his natural armor, it's nine. That's a lot considering he can still benefit from an armor bonus. Knocking it down by between 2 and 4 points may be necessary.

Oh, and he can turn into a dog. Hooray?


Bralani Azata. Conventional wisdom would say this is just the Azata version of the Hound Archon, filling the same CR as it. However, he's just got too many great abilities that aren't a big deal for an encounter, but very powerful for a PC. In addition to 6 natural armor, he's also got blur and mirror image ready for every fight he's in, perfect flight at a great speed, and whatever the hell his whirlwind form would do. It's just too much.


Boggard. CR2, HD3. Humanoid. If you want to play a Battletoad, these guys get all the cool frog stuff. They got a jump bonus, a sticky tongue, and amphibiousness. Their only very powerful ability is Terrifying Croak, which is an AoE shaken fear once an hour. Even then, it's only REALLY powerful if stacked with spells or Dazzling Display, since it can "step up" shaken to frightened.


Centaur. Really I'm only putting this here because they're super popular, something I never understood. They don't get any abilities or bonuses that are out of line, and even lose the number one bonus of being size large: The bonus damage. So, they'd be perfectly fine to add to your party if not for one thing: They can only go places that horses can go, which is even less places than your average size large monster. You can add a centaur PC to your game, sure, but the GM might struggle to keep you involved past basic architecture, something he doesn't always have to do with say, ogre.


Choker. These guys are probably a no-go for viable play, I just wanted to say I think it'd be hilarious to play a character whose only solution to every single problem it encounters is to choke something.


Cyclops. CR5, HD10. Humanoid. Modification: Way less HD. If you want to play an ogre but don't want the INT penalty, Cyclops is essentially you paying two more CR for Flash of Insight and better mentals. Flash of Insight is awesome, letting you choose the result of a die you roll, but only once a day. Just knock the cyclops down to like 5 or 6 HD and he's good to go.


Dretch Demon. CR2, HD2. Outsider. Modification: Slightly more INT. You may not think I'm serious here, but these guys aren't bad. In fact, they're kind of shitty when you factor in taking a whopping -6 to INT. Bump their INT up by 2 or 4 points and these would be fine to play. You'd essentially be playing an uggo gnome but with defensive abilities and better stats for its two level payment. Of course, you could also probably turn these guys into a base race via the race guide rules. This is one of the few that I'd say either/or.


Quasit Demon.  CR2, HD3. Outsider. Basically, take everything I'm about to say and apply it to Imps as well, because they're basically the same monster. Being size tiny means you're likely to only play them as casters, where things like a bit of extra AC, DR and fast healing are more helpful. You're also still paying 2 levels in a non-caster "Class" though, so that balances them out even further, to the point where I don't think they're that great. Invisibility at will may guide some people toward rogue, but you're still giving up some damage by virtue of being tiny, so I wouldn't ever expect a Quasit or Imp to be a damage all-star. Plus, plenty of people will have invisibility whenever they want it, since a wand of the spell is relatively inexpensive. A free Commune a week is nice too, but it's still only once a week. They're not bad, though. Quasit is going to slide generally closer to a rogue type, and Imps are better for casters.


Janni, CR4, HD6. Monsters are, in general, going to have nice stats, and Janni is no different. Other than that, however, it doesn't get much. It's got some nice spell-likes and improved initiative as a bonus feat, but that's kind of it. Plane Shift three times a day might seem great, but by the time anyone can survive most of the planes it can travel to, the party wizard is going to have plane shift anyway. Still, if you're leery, you can remove it entirely and the Janni likely won't miss it.


Ghoul. CR1, HD2. Modifications: Paralysis reduction. If you want to play an undead creature, ghoul isn't a bad option. It's low CR and all it really boasts is some stat boosts and its paralysis. As for it, you definitely want to restrict it to a number of times per day, or possibly only its bite. Crowd Control can win fights very easily, and a ghoul with infinite paralysis can spam people down. Monster paralysis does NOT offer additional saves per round, and you never grow immune to it by successfully saving.  Even so, the ghoul still has to deal with turning and healing itself, which is a mitigating factor.


Harpy. CR4, HD7. Monstrous Humanoid. Modifications: HD reduction, and see below. I really want to allow Harpy in some way, but even without captivating song they still have some fairly high stat boosts. Captivating song is huge, and even giving the Harpy a number of rounds of it per day would be pretty powerful. It creates a dominant strategy of the party plugging their ears then running roughshod over an encounter of helpless enemies. If you're okay with removing their iconic ability entirely, though...they aren't that bad. They get a +6 to Charisma, which might seem huge, but CHA dependent classes frequently lag behind others in PF and 3.X. That's assuming the harpy player even goes for a caster. with a CR of 4, that's a fairly big disadvantage. I'm not marking Harpy as good or bad here...since I still can't decide. Sorry.


Lizardfolk. I'm mentioning Lizardfolk and Gnolls here to say that these aren't really appropriate monstrous PCs. Instead, you should either convert them to a base PC race by hand, or use the rules and examples in the race guide. They don't get anything that justifies making the player take a point of CR.


Mephit. CR3, HD3. Outsider. These little guys are once again a monster race that edges toward sorcerer with their +4 to Charisma. Still, they'd do well in other roles, and none of them get anything that's THAT great. Fast Healing is already not that big of a deal, and these guys all have conditions on theirs that may or may not be easy to fill, meaning all it does is ensure the party cleric spends a few less spells on healing them between fights as they curl up in the campfire. Or a bucket of water. Or worse, depending on the element you pick, basically never get their fast healing bonus.


Minotaur. CR4, HD6. Monstrous Humanoid. Everything I said about Ogre or Cyclops you could say here. Playing the party Brute Squad is a really popular idea, and thankfully you've got several options. Minotaur has his gore attack which can 'throw in' when he attacks with weapons, which is nice. Natural Cunning is very unlikely to come up, though.


Skeletal Champion. As the sole template we're discussing today(see below) I should mention the "intelligent skeleton" template works fine for making a PC skeleton. So long as you avoid the variant skeletons, any powerful ability he might get is mitigated by the fact that he's going to be CR 2 and only have one HD, being plainly one level lower and not getting any numbers or HP from it.


Troglodyte. CR1, HD2. Humanoid. This is another one I want to gently suggest you come up with base PC rules for. They've got a lot of natural armor, but their stat spread kind of sucks, and Stench is nothing to write home about. In fact, unless the rest of the party all finds some way to become immune, he's not likely to be using it often. I could see a use for it in stacking penalties on enemies, since it's not an action to start it and the troglodyte could use dazzling display or something, but on its own...it's okay. Still, they're fine.


Troll. CR5, HD6. Humanoid. Modification: See Below. This is yet another in the "Brute Squad" template, and this time he's taken an additional 2 CR for a massive boost to CON, and regeneration 5. He's got natural attacks, but only the bite is going to see much use since it can be "thrown in" with weapon attacks. A player being exceptionally tough to put down isn't necessarily a hugely problematic thing, but even so, you may want to knock his CON bonus down a bit. As for Regeneration, I'm unconvinced that it's a huge problem. The player can still be put out of a fight, even if they aren't prepared with fire and acid. The days of 3.5 where regeneration was insanely good are fairly gone, and in Pathfinder it's more like Fast Healing plus. If you're worried or having a problem, consider knocking the number down.


I probably left a few monsters out. Wights might be okay to play if you remove their ability to create spawn. There's some aquatic monsters I passed over for being relatively tied to the oceans. Others might have had a high CR, or a huge host of abilities on top of really nice stat adjusts. A lot of monsters are okay to play, but none of them were designed with that in mind so there's always going to be some sort of consideration.

A few notes on types. Outsiders are always going to have to worry about spells like Dismiss, but just like Droid characters in Star Wars worrying about being memory wiped, it's best that you keep this to a vague threat. It may be the "logical" thing to do in a combat, but consider what you're doing. You're putting him out of a session entirely, maybe several. You also might find it logical to make him work to get back, since even outsider players still in line with their brethren socially are probably going to be on the "outs" somehow. Another situation where he has to go pick up the pizza...or bring his 3DS to session. Not so good.

Undead also have some things to worry about, like the fact that they die immediately at 0 HP or dealing with turning. In addition to that, the undead player has to deal with the fact that a raise dead spell would return them to life, which is something the player certainly doesn't want, and the character might not either. In this case, I seriously recommend Pathfinder GMs take a page from Forgotten Realms and introduce the spell Return to Undeath, which is roughly identical to Raise Dead, except it returns an intelligent undead back to un-life. Obviously, they don't take a negative level. This is necessary to keep the undead player playing the character they want. In many cases, an intelligent undead is no longer the person they were in life, and it would really stink for your badass level 20 mummy fighter to come back as a level 5 aristocrat. Having to struggle or carry wands to heal themselves is probably enough to worry about.

I also didn't discuss templates. Basically, as written you're giving up a single level for a whole hell of a lot of abilities, in particular from half-celestial and half-fiend. Initially I want to tell you to bump the CR up to a +2 to compensate, but straight up losing one or two levels is a big deal. I'm sorry, but I really don't know what to tell you right now. The templates in Bestiary 1 are pretty powerful, but definitely not worth the 4 levels 3.X wanted you to pay.

We'll continue this at some point with the other Bestiaries, but I can't imagine we're doing all six. At some point, I'm sure ya'll will catch on and no longer need me.

Monster PCs: Are they really that bad?

You saw the clickbaity title, let's fucking go. I love monstrous PCs and they're always of dubious balance. I know for a fact that it matters a lot at lower levels, but I always wondered if that holds up later on. We haven't really run many 3.X or Pathfinder games at higher levels, let alone with a monstrous PC. So since the math is escaping me and I was going to crunch it anyway, we might as well do it together. That means Punch and Judy are back, so let's put down some ground rules to the test.

Punch is playing a human fighter. He showed up at the last gaming session drunk and got in a fight about playing his half dragon, half vampire tanari-ri spellshaper, and his punishment is to play a race from the core book. We're giving him the best chance he can get when compared against Judy while still building a "normal" character. We could have given him orc as a race, and this test would go similarly, but human is not a race to be scoffed at, and it let him put a +2 into Strength.

Judy is playing an ogre fighter. Seeing as how she stopped Punch's rampage by suplexing him through a card table, the GM is being a little lenient and letting her pick a monster PC. We chose ogre for several reasons: It's a low CR monster ostensibly good for converting into a PC. It's the best numbers a monster PC will ever get, hands down, with its +10 to strength, +4 to constitution, and +5 natural armor. Speaking in terms of raw numbers, this is the best a monster PC is ever going to get, and every other choice is likely to be worse. Third, it's got no special abilities. These are obviously something that needs to be balanced on a case by case basis and not something I can give general advice on.

HP is standardized, and the stat spread is 18, 16, 14, 14, 12, 10. This is a decent spread to run a game with, and while I always recommend GMs let players slide points around, we have not done so in this instance. Punch and Judy aren't the kind of people that can be trusted with that.

Judy will receive a bonus level of fighter between levels 7 and 8. This is a standard Pathfinder rule, and while I'm not entirely certain of its balance, we're including it. Watch for Judy's "Ogre" levels to go from 3 to 2. In addition, the book says to treat the monster's CR as its total levels, so I did so for purposes of feats and stat bonuses. She still received the other numerical bonuses for having 4HD.

They will not be building identically. While I feel they should both be going for the same sort of role, building identically wouldn't really prove anything. They're both going to be shooting for getting the most damage they can out of a full attack action with a two handed weapon, but as you'll see Punch has some strengths he wants to leverage, and it would be unfair to ignore that.

We won't be discussing magic items. This is not only because they could just be wearing the same shit, but also because precisely what you're spending your money on can be a huge X-factor. I will absolutely put notes down about magic items later when we discuss "intangibles" that aren't represented by the stat blocks, but there aren't many differences. This also means me including AC and CMD is a bit pointless, since neither character is going to be leveraging Armor Training without DEX boosting items. In this case, we can just say Punch has a minor advantage: Not only does he have 2 extra DEX, but he's also receiving Armor Training a little faster. It won't close the gap caused by her natural armor entirely, but it'll help.

We won't be discussing Skills. Judy is just behind in this. Me listing out exactly what they spent their skill points on would take up too much space for something that's never going to change. She loses this comparison over all levels. She gets one skill at max rank, and Punch gets four. This is absolutely a disadvantage, and don't dismiss that: Most games are not going to be more than 60% fighting, and that means Judy is 'down' for 40% of the time.

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PUNCH
Race: Human
Level: Fighter 5
STR 21(5) DEX 14(2) CON 16(3) INT 14(2) WIS 12(1) CHA 10(0)
FORT +7(4base+3con) REF +3(1base+2dex) WIL +2(1base+1wis)
AC 21(9armor+2dex) CMD 22(5ab+5str+2dex)
HP: 47

BAB: +5

Feats: 1 Weapon Focus, 1b Improved Unarmed Strike, 1b Combat Expertise, 2b Power Attack, 3 Improved Trip, 4b Weapon Specialization, 5 Combat Reflexes

Attacks: +11, 1d10+10

Equipment: Full Plate(+9), Halberd(1d10, Brace, Trip)

--

JUDY

Race: Ogre

Level: Ogre 3(4HD) Fighter 2

STR 29(9) DEX 12(1) CON 20(5) INT 08(-1) WIS 14(2) CHA 08(-1)

FORT +14(7base+5con) REF +2(1base+1dex) WIL +3(1base+2wis)

AC 24(9armor+1dex+5nat-1size) CMD 26(5AB+9str+1dex+1size)

HP: 67

BAB: +5

Feats: 1 Weapon Focus, 3 Power Attack, 4b Improved Sunder, 5 Lunge, 5b Toughness

Attacks: +14, 3d6+13

Equipment: Full Plate(+9), Large Greatsword(3d6)

--

Judy is a really clear winner here at level five. Punch is still putting his build together, whereas Judy is leveraging some really easy early bonuses. With power attack, she can lower her attack bonus to +12(still just above Punch's) for a whopping 3d6+19 damage. She also has an immense amount of HP and is wholly unafraid of popping Lunge to stack on her reach. She took Improved Sunder early because of her Strength advantage, but also because she has way less "combo" and "setup" in her feats than Punch. At any rate,  Punch loses this round pretty badly. That's okay, though: We knew he was going to. 

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PUNCH
Race: Human
Level: Fighter 10
STR 22(6) DEX 14(2) CON 16(3) INT 14(2) WIS 12(1) CHA 10(0)
FORT +10(7base+3con) REF +5(3base+2dex) WIL +4(3base+1wis)
AC 21(9armor+2dex) CMD 23(5ab+6str+2dex)
HP: 89

BAB: +10/+5

Feats: 1 Weapon Focus, 1b Improved Unarmed Strike, 1b Combat Expertise, 2b Power Attack, 3 Improved Trip, 4b Weapon Specialization, 5 Combat Reflexes 6b greater trip 7 vicious stomp 8b greater weapon focus 9 improved critical 10b critical focus

Attacks: +20/+15 1d10+13
Trip Attack Round: +22/+17 1d10+13, +19 1d3+7

Equipment: Full Plate(+9), Halberd(1d10, Brace, Trip)

--

JUDY
Race: Ogre
Level: Ogre 2(4HD) Fighter 8
STR 30(10) DEX 12(1) CON 20(5) INT 08(-1) WIS 14(2) CHA 08(-1)
FORT +15(10base+5con) REF +4(3base+1dex) WIL +5(3base+2wis)
AC 24(9armor+1dex+5nat-1size) CMD 27(5AB+10str+1dex+1size)
HP: 125

BAB: +11/+6/+1

Feats: 1 Weapon Focus, 3 Power Attack, 4b improved sunder, 5 Lunge, 5b Toughness 6b greater sunder 7 weapon specialization 7b cleave 9 improved critical 9b greater weapon focus

Attacks: +23/+18/+13 3d6+17

Equipment: Full Plate(+9), Large Greatsword(3d6)

--

The first thing you'll notice is why I'm leery of giving Judy another class level at any point. She doesn't really need it, and in this instance it means she's effective level 10, and has a BAB of +11, letting her attain three attacks per round a level early. So, right there I feel we should throw that rule out or alter it so it's one bonus every four or even five levels, or simply only apply it to players who are really missing those class abilities like casters. I honestly thought about shifting this example to level 12 so the number of attacks looks better, but this was too indicative of why that particular rule wasn't great in this specific example. Please keep in mind that Punch will catch up to three attacks next level.

That said, Punch has finished the core of his build: He picked Halberd to trade a little damage for an extra +2 to trip. He didn't have to do that, he could be rocking a greatsword or an exotic weapon. The plan is to trip so he can proc AoOs from himself and his party and also get a decent 'throw in' attack via vicious stomp. Ironically, if this were a competition, Punch would be using Judy's massive reach and damage 'against' her by providing her with an AoO to take. That would count as 'his' damage since he's the one who created the opportunity. For her part, Judy is trucking along with a pretty typical power attack tree build. There's no "combo" for her to leverage: just various combat options and direct bonuses.

Is Judy still ahead? Yep. Does she still have a truckload more HP? Yep. Note that her Toughness feat accounts for 12HP, though. What's interesting is how Punch has caught up: First off, he's leveraging a build that Judy couldn't attain without some heavy attributes shifting, and it probably wouldn't be worth it even then. She absolutely is locked out of certain types of build. If Punch can reliably trip, he's getting an additional attack overall and a +2 to hit.  Second, he's two levels ahead, and that means he's already got Weapon Training 2. Third, Judy is only ever going to be between three and five points ahead, and as they level, it'll start to matter less.

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PUNCH
Race: Human

Level: Fighter 20
STR 25(7) DEX 14(2) CON 16(3) INT 14(2) WIS 12(1) CHA 10(0)
FORT +15(12base+3con) REF +8(6base+2dex) WIL +7(6base+1wis)
AC 21(9armor+2dex) CMD 23(5ab+7str+2dex)
HP: 174

BAB: +20/+15/+10/+5

Feats: 1 Weapon Focus, 1b Improved Unarmed Strike, 1b Combat Expertise, 2b Power Attack, 3 Improved Trip, 4b Weapon Specialization, 5 Combat Reflexes, 6b greater trip, 7 vicious stomp, 8b greater weapon focus, 9 improved critical, 10b critical focus, 11 bleeding critical, 12b greater weapon specialization, 13 stand still, 14b penetrating strike, 15 felling smash, 16b greater penetrating strike, 17 staggering critical, 18b stunning critical, 19 critical mastery, 20b lunge

Attacks: +33/+28/+23/+18 1d10+18
Trip Attack Round: +35/+30/+25/+20 1d10+18 +32 1d3+10

Equipment: Full Plate(+9), Halberd(1d10, Brace, Trip)

--

JUDY
Race: Ogre
Level: Ogre 2(4HD) Fighter 18
STR 33(11) DEX 12(1) CON 20(5) INT 08(-1) WIS 14(2) CHA 08(-1)
FORT +20(15base+5con) REF +8(7base+1dex) WIL +9(7base+2wis)
AC 24(9armor+1dex+5nat-1size) CMD 27(5AB+10str+1dex+1size)
HP: 230

BAB: +21/+16/+11/+6

Feats: 1 Weapon Focus, 3 Power Attack, 3b improved sunder, 4b Lunge, 5 Toughness, 6b greater sunder, 7 weapon specialization, 8b cleave, 9 improved critical, 10b greater weapon focus, 11 critical focus, 12b sickening critical, 13 staggering critical, 14b weapon specialization, 15 stand still, 16b greater cleave, 17 stunning critical, 18b improved bull rush, 19 awesome blow, 20b greater bull rush

Attacks: +37/+32/+27/+22 3d6+24

Equipment: Full Plate(+9), Large Greatsword(3d6)

--

Again that bonus level sticks in my craw, giving Judy a BAB of 21. I looked it up and no, this does NOT mean she gets another attack. Thank god. I adjusted the levels she's getting feats at to avoid a headache as well. The fact that she's got less feats than Punch remains the same. I also want to note that both builds had a hell of a lot of directions to go, and I deliberately leaned on taking Critical feats with Punch because I knew I was doing that with Judy. He could discard all of those and shoot for shatter defenses, whirlwind attack, or other stuff. He's got a lot of options. Judy has some too: She could've reached Awesome Blow earlier or taken more stuff like Improved Overrun instead of crit feats. 

For power comparison, we see that Punch lost a little bit of ground in hitroll since both have finished Weapon Training. Judy is still doing a lot more damage overall, with a single hit being an average of 34 damage to Punch's 23. He is, however, getting a stomp attack in as well as causing greater trip AoO opportunities, something Judy's build probably couldn't ever do. She's still ahead on attack, damage and HP, but it isn't as clear. Note that Judy's big bucket of HP was attainable by a regular PC, and Punch may have something similar if he were able to shift attribute points around.

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So what did we learn? We gave Judy the best chance she'll ever get to outclass a human fighter, and it ended up closer than I thought it would. If this is the best that "reasonable" monster PC options have to offer in terms of power, I think most GMs could easily consider monstrous options. Let's put some bullet points below explaining a few things. 

Judy's damage is from a size advantage, as well as the two-handed weapon multiplier. she gets a bonus D6 compared to a medium character, first off. She's always a die type ahead. Second, the 1.5 damage multiplier on two handed weapons is better and better the more strength you've got. She's leveraging her best bonus in this case by insisting on a greatsword. Were she switch to longsword and shield(since two weapon fighting isn't viable for her) her damage drops to 2d6+19 at level 20. 

Magic Items are going to help Punch a little more than Judy. By level 20 they're both going to have +10 equivalent weapons, but Punch has the option of a monk's belt to increase his vicious stomp damage. 

Punch's damage could have been better. If he were an orc with a greatsword, it'd be 2d6+20, or an average of 27 damage. He'd be losing a +2 to trip for a weapon swap, and a feat would be the major loss for going orc. 

The bonus levels from playing a monstrous PC are deceptive. I feel they should only be used in a case where the monster is going against the grain of their race, shooting for utility, or playing a caster. Judy really didn't need it. 

Judy being two levels behind may or may not matter. Yeah, this is kind of the elephant in the room, Judy's ogre fucking rocks if it's going to be a short game where Punch can't catch up. She's missing the quite important Armor Mastery and Weapon Mastery currently, but if the game's going into epic levels...she'll get them soon. If the game didn't even reach 20? Punch didn't get them either. GMs should consider ABOUT how long their game is going to go in some cases before allowing something.

Judy's INT penalty is not a worthless disadvantage. I did this on purpose. The Combat Expertise tree isn't useless. Neither are skills, not even to a fighter. Some people are content playing the sort of guy who "wakes up" for combat and surfs the net on his phone while skills are being rolled...but it's not exactly the most enjoyment you can get out of PNP games. A good GM can make Judy feel her disadvantages.

Size will probably come into play. That's what she said. In combat, being size large is a huge advantage, and being size small is a disadvantage. However, in non-combat situations this is reversed: being large is only a nuisance, and being small lets you fit in and through things as well as giving a stealth skill bonus. Again, do not take any of Judy's disadvantages lightly. Don't completely fuck her out of an adventure, though. It may seem 'logical' that she can't fit into a dungeon entrance, but what's the player going to do, go pick up the pizza? 

Class factors in to your decision. I can go into the specifics of what to look for in monsters later, but in general, primary attributes matter most, so the class the player is picking is absolutely a factor. If Judy had picked Ogre but then played a cleric, or even a monk, she'd still have a perfectly viable, even powerful character, but the gap here wouldn't be nearly as exaggerated. Strength and Dex are your particular problems here. There are a ton of monsters with modifiers of +8 or higher in these attributes, but far less with huge bonuses in the other four. I should probably turn this into an additional blog topic, but in general, you're worrying a lot less about monster casters.

So what did we learn? Well, like I said, Ogre was Judy's best possible chance to be better than Punch, and even then she only ended up 3-5 points of attack and about six or so damage. She's got more HP, but honestly that can sometimes relieve a GM, and let them throw a bunch of attacks at her if things are going south for the party. Judy's HP isn't outside the realm of normal possibility, anyway.

So in summation? If a monster is under CR5, it's probably fine to allow in your game. Double-check any abilities it has, and we'll go deeper into advice later.