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4e One-trick ponies: Why is it the DM's fault about combat grind?
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<blockquote data-quote="Beginning of the End" data-source="post: 4643371" data-attributes="member: 55271"><p>Another contributing factor is the narrower focus of the monsters.</p><p></p><p>Late in the 3rd Edition design cycle, the design team at WotC decided that monsters had too many abilities. Their logic was basically:</p><p></p><p>(a) A typical monster only survives for 5 rounds in combat.</p><p>(b) Therefore, a monster only does 5 things and then it's dead.</p><p>(c) Therefore, a monster only needs to be able to do 5 things. At most.</p><p></p><p>Even in 3rd Edition their logic was pretty badly flawed, since it ignored things like:</p><p></p><p>(1) You might encounter groups with more than one monster in them.</p><p>(2) You might encounter the same type of monster again at some later date.</p><p>(3) The tactics of the players or the circumstances of the encounter might have an effect on what the monster can do, thus making additional options valuable.</p><p>(4) You might encounter the monster in a non-combat scenario.</p><p></p><p>In 4th Edition, all of these problem areas remain. But then they increased the duration of combat by bumping up hit point totals.</p><p></p><p>So now you have longer combats in which the opponents have fewer things to do. More time, less variety. That's practically the definition of grind.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Beginning of the End, post: 4643371, member: 55271"] Another contributing factor is the narrower focus of the monsters. Late in the 3rd Edition design cycle, the design team at WotC decided that monsters had too many abilities. Their logic was basically: (a) A typical monster only survives for 5 rounds in combat. (b) Therefore, a monster only does 5 things and then it's dead. (c) Therefore, a monster only needs to be able to do 5 things. At most. Even in 3rd Edition their logic was pretty badly flawed, since it ignored things like: (1) You might encounter groups with more than one monster in them. (2) You might encounter the same type of monster again at some later date. (3) The tactics of the players or the circumstances of the encounter might have an effect on what the monster can do, thus making additional options valuable. (4) You might encounter the monster in a non-combat scenario. In 4th Edition, all of these problem areas remain. But then they increased the duration of combat by bumping up hit point totals. So now you have longer combats in which the opponents have fewer things to do. More time, less variety. That's practically the definition of grind. [/QUOTE]
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4e One-trick ponies: Why is it the DM's fault about combat grind?
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