dave2008
Legend
Why is that? I can use a group of orcs for a 10 round combat and their stat blocks are much more simple.
D&D 5E New Spellcasting Blocks for Monsters --- Why?!
dave2008
Legend
The free one doesn't have the full description from the book. In general monsters entries have the following sections / paragraphs in addition to the statblock:
- General descriptive opening 3-4 paragraphs
- Legends and Lore (with check DCs)
- Encounters (with encounter CRs)
- Signs: 8 signs the hint a creature is in the area
- Behavior: 6 behavior options
- Names
Regarding the lich (and spellcasters in general), it has a full 25+/- spell list and 5+/- of those spells given abbreviated descriptions in the actions. bonus actions, or reaction sections.
MonsterEnvy
Legend
Same, but I don’t agree with you on what’s good game design.
Bill Zebub
“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
Interesting. That's not how I interpret it it at all, but I do get that if that is how one sees it, this is a step in the wrong direction.
So you wouldn't use a CR 6 Mage as a solo at level 4, a group leader at level 8, and and as support for a big monster at level 12?
Isn'tthat the whole point of bounded accuracy? So that monsters statblocks could be used at different levels and tiers.
Oh, sure, they can be. I just don't like to if I can help it. There's the boring part, as well as a general dissatisfaction I have with the arc of PC power (especially in terms of in game time) in 5E played by the book. I just prefer to have characters encounter new and different things as they gain power. It breaks my own personal sense of verisimilitude to have the PCs cower before an oger, say, only to wallop 4 at a time some weeks later on the in game calendar.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
That is abundantly clear.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Statblocks, but not the same narrative creature. That's explicitly a 4e thing (a feature if i remember the ad copy correctly).
dave2008
Legend
Don't you have it backwards? In 5e it is narratively the same creature, it would just have a different role because of the power dynamic. In 4e, the actually change the name and abilities. It was specifically a different creature. So an orc minion =/= orce =/= orc elite. Now, you could slide a monster up and down the scale, but in practice that is not what the Monster Manuals presented.
From the 4e MM, all of these are different orcs narratively:
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