The Rules Aren't The Same between PCs and NPCs. This has far-reaching implications that I didn't fully appreciate until I'd been playing
4e for awhile and thought about the things I could not conveniently do anymore.
If, in a game, PCs and NPCs obviously operate on the same rules, there is more room for mystery plots, as players can look at the capabilities open to them and make some deductions.
It is also more tempting to run plots with strictly normal (i.e., PC-like) antagonists.
3e had become more of a burden than a game. It
is too clunky. But it, and editions before it, in some ways attempted to describe a fantastical universe, consistent between PCs and NPCs.
4e does not attempt this in any way that I can discern, and I am not entirely willing to give up on that. I think my response to this will be to build a wide variety of strictly normal statblocks, an expansion of the human, elf, dwarf, etc., entries in the
MM. Their powers will be cognates of PC powers, and recognizable as such. If they do a little more or less damage, that's not really relevant.
B
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