I think you are grossly underestimating peoples intelligence, when you think even a new DM won't grasp the concept of an undead necromancer (frequently) having undead with them being logical. Or when say, Orc warriors are found with Orc shamans/archers. I've always found those suggestions an absolute waste of time and page space - especially because some of them were particularly daft anyway (felt like random combinations of monsters of the same level).
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Monster vault: I has it
- Thread starter Fiery James
- Start date
DragoonLance
First Post
Mostly going to have to agree on that. At this point I don't have any real use for MM except for a tiny handful of corner cases like hellhounds. MM3 covers epic tier far better, the epic monsters in MM were a joke from every account I've seen. And a new DM is going to be better served by reading the included adventures in the MV and DMK and getting ideas for encounters from there.
Speaking of the adventures, I finally had a chance to read through Cairn of the Winter King. I am generally the first person to bash WotC adventures for being boring grindfests, so I am very pleased with this one. The start actually gives some decent RP suggestions for the citizens of Fallcrest, and the main part of the adventure feels like a good old school dungeon exploration adventure. There is a bit of meh in getting from point A to B IMO, but overall it's far superior to the average adventure, I'd say about a 7 out of 10. It could use a bit of adjustment to really catch the old school feel, but its an excellent attempt to recapture the feel of the old dungeon modules without having the bizarre "gotcha" traps and such.
Speaking of the adventures, I finally had a chance to read through Cairn of the Winter King. I am generally the first person to bash WotC adventures for being boring grindfests, so I am very pleased with this one. The start actually gives some decent RP suggestions for the citizens of Fallcrest, and the main part of the adventure feels like a good old school dungeon exploration adventure. There is a bit of meh in getting from point A to B IMO, but overall it's far superior to the average adventure, I'd say about a 7 out of 10. It could use a bit of adjustment to really catch the old school feel, but its an excellent attempt to recapture the feel of the old dungeon modules without having the bizarre "gotcha" traps and such.
Dice4Hire
First Post
Well as it is the first MM a new essentials DM has ever seen, it would be nice to format out some encounters. Focusing on the necromancer and giving a page of 3-4 varied encounters nad the monster' strengths and weaknesses would be very nice for a new DM to have.
I find a lot of people forget what it was like to be a new DM. Propbably because it was a decade or two back in their past.
UngeheuerLich
Legend
I guess the sample adventure(s) should be the guide for new DMs (not that I've seen them yet)
UnknownAtThisTime
First Post
In case anyone has not seen it, I started a thread where a very kind soul posted all the Tokens in the MV.
When will the secondary market for token sheets open up?
When will the secondary market for token sheets open up?
TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
[MENTION=79607]Jools[/MENTION], what else can we do to help you with your "problem"?
We're here to help.
Funkenstein23
First Post
Around how many of the monsters have tokens to go with them? I'd hope it was all or at least most of them but you never know.
I think you are overestimating people's industriousness. People want convienience in products like these.
Its not that a person can't figure out that necromancer should have skeletons, its that they don't want to. Its nice to have a couple of preencounters already there (ideally with page numbers), so I want to throw something out quick I can.
I must not be "People" then because I still think it's taking space away from more important things. I mean my 4 step process for quick encounters is:
Step 1: Pick soldier/brute monster of X level
Step 2: Pick second artillery/skirmisher monster of X level
Step 3: Make sure there are 5 of them in total (any combination).
Step 4: Encounter!
Because that's all you need to do in 4E and that method above works really well a good amount of the time. If you have 2 wolves and 3 goblins you're not really doing anything different to the (often) random combination's of things in the MM anyway. I would far rather have more creatures, general fluff and such than the large amount of whitespace and area these things took up in MM/MM2.
I just can't see the point in a system where encounter building is already made so ridiculously easy. If I'm mixing together a lot of monster roles and creatures over different levels, then I usually am spending the time to engineer the encounter.
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