[3.5] Giving players an even bigger reason to peek in the MM...

[Erastus]

Looking at the Pit Fiend entry... I have misgivings about this 'Tactics Round by Round' thing that reads like the instructions on the back of a shampoo bottle. All they're missing are the words 'rinse and repeat'.

It seems to me that listing the most effective tactics for each monster in the MM with 'Tactics Round by Round' just gives players an even bigger reason to know the MM by heart, and make every character have a 'Crocodile Hunter'-like knowledge of all the published monsters they could face. Seems like they just made it harder to control metagame thinking and 'out of game' knowledge just to dumb down what the monsters can do for everybody.

 

[Crothian]

I'm not worried about in the least. My players could read it and memorize it but I trust they would never use the knowledge in the game.

 

[arwink]

I gotta say the tactics by round thing doesn't really bother me in the slightest. As long as it's not used as a bible "must do" and instead as a guideline, it's not going to be any more telling than looking at the list of powers a monster has.

For monsters like pit-fiends, where the listing of powers is so impressive it can be hard to use them at their most effective, a guidline is a great idea.

Of course, there are already players in my group that know the MM as well as I do (probably better) so I'm more or less used to changing everything so they aren't so familiar with it.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Those tactics can be of great value to rookie DMs, not to mention experienced ones as well. I don't think memorizing those tactics will benefit your character much as the DM probably will deviate from the list based on the surroundings and priviledged DM information. I think it looks like a great addition to the game.

You won't catch me poring over those tactics as a player either. Really, I promise.

 

[Henry]

I second Crothian and Arwink here.

At worst, you've just given rules lawyers YET MORE material to memorize, confusing the issue for those who like to use game knowledge in-game to win combats.

At best, you've given most average-to-good DM's a laudry list of the powers and abilities of a creature, to stop the kinds of abuses that spawned Bothered about Disposable Dragons (BADD) in the first place.

Too many DM's in this world treat Dragons like Dinosaurs; to actually see a 5-round listing of the creatures more obvious tactics (spells, abilities, etc.) gives the DM an idea of how to use these things by seeingit in action on the page.

 

[Mordane76]

I have to say that Tactics would be a blessing! These big nasties always have more powers than I can keep at the forefront of my thoughts when in combat, and having a nice guideline for action would be really nice. Also -- it could be a hinderance, especially to younger DMs; if a Creature Y always does X when the characters encounter it, then the players will learn to adapt and prepare for those tactics.

As for players reading the MM and DMG, my players know better; they also know there are XP penalties or physical harm pending for anyone cracking one of these books or using knowledge their character wouldn't have during play.

A little more seriously, I don't think players memorizing the MM will be a big issue; I'd hope people would have better things to remember than the statistics of monsters for a game.

 

[shadoe]

It is also usefull for the players to have that kind of information if they make use of the summon monster spells. I would have liked to see that kind of work up given for the monsters that my sorcerer summons in battles.

As it stands I already use a prepared printout for the monsters that I summon and then only have to look up the details for the monsters when something strange comes up.

Also just think of how much easier it will be on the DM's for the NPC's that use the summon monsters.

 

[Fenes 2]

I rarely use monsters since I prefer human(oid) opponents. Still, I can see that having such a default tactic can reduce the amount of preparation I need in case I use a monster.
Since my current group of players is not metagaming at all I don't see much of a problem in that area either.

 

[Mark]

Speaking from a WotC perspective (though I am not a WotC employee, of course), the main goal is to sell as many books as possible. The DM slice of the gamer pie is smaller and one way to entice some players to go beyond the PH-only purchase is to put useful information in the MM for players.

For a DM, the round by round information is good guidance even if the actual text is not used as strategy verbatim.

If you have a player in your game who thinks looking in the MM for how to defeat monsters is a good idea, change things around a bit. Certainly that has been suggested and the DMG has lots of tricks to help you, not to mention that almost all monsters/creatures/NPCs can be scaled.

If you ask a player not to look in the MM, and they look despite your request, then you have trust problems with your player that won't be solved by the publisher's omission of that material from the book, I fear...

 

[Zappo]

I don't think there will be any problem at all. First of all, I doubt that most players will be able to remember all tactics from all monsters. And in any case, to seriously take advantage of that knowledge, the players would need to use a very specialized strategy - one that would be foiled by the slightest deviation on the monster's side. Who would want to take the chance that the DM decides to have the Pit Fiend charge immediately instead of casting Meteor Swarm? Such a mistake could easily get someone killed.