D&D 5E Spellcasting Monsters, Spell Slotlessness, Bonus Actions, and Intent

[Micah Sweet]

And setting logic means an untold amount of variety so it makes sense that the PCs encounter unique abilities they've never seen or heard of.

But not ones that are impossible to learn.

 

[Sorinth]

But not ones that are impossible to learn.

In theory sure but in practice no they can't.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

...but the DM will never run out of dragons...

That's so cool.

 

[Micah Sweet]

In theory sure but in practice no they can't.

Why not? Serious question.

 

[Remathilis]

Even if it's allowed under the rules, it's a terrible idea to do so since the players cannot. Having the monsters operate under clearly different standards tends to lead to bad outcomes in my 30+ year gaming experience. Essentially the practice undermines the sense of trust and perception of fairness between players and DM.

Regardless of whether monster are created under the same restrictions that the PCs are (e g. different stat caps or unbalanced personal abilities).

Kinda like letting enemies have extra actions in between player turns or just choose to pass a saving throw.

Heaven forbid NPCs operate in any way different than a PC...

 

[Micah Sweet]

Kinda like letting enemies have extra actions in between player turns or just choose to pass a saving throw.

Heaven forbid NPCs operate in any way different than a PC...

For the record, I am not a fan of legendary actions without explanation.

 

[Distracted DM]

WotC's new edition can be as player-friendly as they like, but the DM will never run out of dragons...

It's a personal gripe, but if I need to exhaust the land's population of ancient dragons, or have half of the balors/pit fiends etc. slain in the course of the campaign... that's a big deal for the setting. I know "the DM will never run out of dragons" but that really doesn't treat the world as a "real place," it treats it like a video game. Obviously just my opinion.

 

[Sorinth]

Why not? Serious question.

As I said before the work involved in creating a PC feat/subclass/replacement ability/etc.... is so much higher then doing it for an NPC. Like @Remathilis said take Legendary Actions, I have a master swordsman who has honed their craft to amazing levels they are super quick/strong and I give them LAs like extra attacks and movement to highlight that amazing quickness. A PC wants to train with said NPC to gain the same LAs how are you handling it? Because sure in fiction it's something that is teachable, but in practice we can't be giving PCs legendary actions without completely warping the game.

 

[Epic Meepo]

Why not? Serious question.

Because the PCs have chosen the path that let's them master 20 levels of class features over the course of a hundred or so encounters?

Meanwhile, the NPCs of the setting have each devoted years of training to mastering one or two tricks that can't be learned by simply experiencing a few adventures. Any PC can learn those same tricks... by not not adventuring for a decade or so and effectively retiring from the campaign.

 

[Chaltab]

I think of it like this: your NPC Evoker Wizard 'actually' has the same number of spell slots as a 12th level wizard in the fiction but it's mechanically abstracted for the few rounds the wizard participates as a combatant. (An actual 12th level Wizard probably doesn't have 121 hit points, but probably has more than 66 the VGM Evoker had. Moreover PCs tend to have more damage mitigation than humanoid NPCs)