I think Christopher Robin's point is that Noonan's quote was with regards to 3e (Monster Manual 5), not, as innerdude says, 4e.
So we're hypothesizing that Christopher Robin is unaware that they were designing 4th Edition at the point? And similarly unaware that the designers have stated that the latter day products of 3.5 were being impacted by 4th Edition design philosophies?
Oh, I see reading further that Christopher Robin himself is making that claim.
Well, fair enough.
I think you seem to be reading it from the standpoint that they designed the game to make the statement true... whereas I feel they designed the game based around an already truthful statement. (if that makes sense.)
Well, if you agree with the statement that NPCs will never interact with PCs except for 5 rounds of combat, then there's really not much else to be said.
The original post talked about the disparity between Noonan's statement and the statement: "Combat is a part of stories and fiction solely there to provide drama, but endless slogs with monsters and NPCs I don't care about have zero drama."
I disagree with Noonan and agree with the other guy. You obviously disagree with the other guy and agree with Noonan.
Admin here. Don't tell other people what they must think or feel. It's a guaranteed way to start an argument instead of discussing the topic, and it's a good way to get yourself booted from a thread. ~ PCat
This ignores the fact that monsters in 4e, unlike 3e aren't designed to be the "typical" of the species. They're designed more to be one type of a whole. So the next time you see X monster it probably won't be the same, because the DM is using another one of many versions of X monster. (You notice this even more in the monsters that show up frequently like orcs and goblins and stuff...)
I keep hearing how easy it is to reskin in 4th Edition, but now you're telling me that you never re-use a stat block? Weird.
(You're about to tell me that that isn't what you said. But it is. Re-read your post until you figure out why.)
Again. Dismissive sarcasm doesn't work well. A good rule of thumb: after you write a post, reread it and ask yourself "are people going to think I'm being a jerk?" If the answer is yes, don't hit submit.
I don't get your math. 5 monsters at the same time that last 5 rounds is still only 5 rounds.. unless each one is popping out 1 at a time from the monster vendomatic.(3) It assumes that multiple versions of the same monster will never appear in the same combat. Monsters only last 5 rounds and nothing they do outside of those 5 rounds matters? Even if we accept the premise, if we have an encounter with 5 of those monsters at the same time and each of them survives an average of 5 rounds, then that stat block actually needs to fill up 25 rounds worth of actions.
And each round each of those monsters gets to take an action. What's five times five?
Stat blocks might only have a few rounds worth of powers, but they do include the creature's ability modifiers, relevant skill, perception abilities and special senses, and movement capabilities. I would think that pretty much everything you need to respond to the various possible scenarios outside of combat - chase scenes, negotiations, trying to sneak past enemies, etc.
Oh c'mon! You guys are trolling me right?
I say, "I'm not talking about how stat blocks are used in combat." And I get somebody replying to everything as if I were talking about how stat blocks are used in combat.
So then I say, "Fine, let's talk about stat blocks in combat." And I get somebody replying to my post as if I were talking about scenarios outside of combat.
Now, here is where I see the heart of the actual debate - what abilities qualify as important against the PCs? Detect Thoughts wasn't particularly relevant in combat, given it took several round to start picking up useful info.
... unless, of course, a compound went on alert and they were trying to track down the PCs.
This is exactly what I'm talking about: You remove non-combat options from the game because they're "not particularly relevant in combat" and then you wonder why your modules don't have any non-combat options. Geez, I wonder if there might be a connection!
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