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Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft - A Grognard Finally Reads It (Review)
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<blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8874657" data-attributes="member: 6915329"><p>I didn't forget, but it's so common in RL it's not really interesting. Not in comparison to various salient abilities offered in the various Van Richten Guides. Also, by the time PCs are ready to fight Ankhotep, they likely have something that will grant resistance or even immunity to magical fear, which makes it a fairly weak ability.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Consistency among monsters has never been D&D's strong suit.</p><p></p><p></p><p>IIRC, Duke Gundar was both older and younger than Strahd at the same time, due to wacky aging magic (I could be remembering a different vampire, though). Ankhtepot is powered not by time but by designer fiat. He's as powerful as he needs to be.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Note that VGR specifically says, for every darklord, so-and-so has stats <strong><em>similar to </em></strong>that of a <preexisting statblock>. They're literally saying "change and add whatever you like, just use this as a baseline. Even without that line, you're free to change his stats. Personally, I've never run a monster directly out of the book, and would prefer to tailor any darklord's abilities to be whatever would be coolest/scariest for the party to face.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Faolyn, post: 8874657, member: 6915329"] I didn't forget, but it's so common in RL it's not really interesting. Not in comparison to various salient abilities offered in the various Van Richten Guides. Also, by the time PCs are ready to fight Ankhotep, they likely have something that will grant resistance or even immunity to magical fear, which makes it a fairly weak ability. Consistency among monsters has never been D&D's strong suit. IIRC, Duke Gundar was both older and younger than Strahd at the same time, due to wacky aging magic (I could be remembering a different vampire, though). Ankhtepot is powered not by time but by designer fiat. He's as powerful as he needs to be. Note that VGR specifically says, for every darklord, so-and-so has stats [B][I]similar to [/I][/B]that of a <preexisting statblock>. They're literally saying "change and add whatever you like, just use this as a baseline. Even without that line, you're free to change his stats. Personally, I've never run a monster directly out of the book, and would prefer to tailor any darklord's abilities to be whatever would be coolest/scariest for the party to face. [/QUOTE]
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Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft - A Grognard Finally Reads It (Review)
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