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<blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 4599324" data-attributes="member: 2804">But these monsters were never &quot;scary&quot; in prior editions. I think a lot of people mistakenly equate player aversion to debilitating meta-game mechanics like level drain to in-game &quot;fear&quot; of a monster.My players were never afraid of a vampire any more in prior editions, than they were in this edition. They just didn't want their characters to be screwed over by level drain. Did that make them &quot;afraid&quot; of the vampire? Not really. Same thing with beholders. My players weren't scared of beholders, so much as they were afraid that a single failed die roll would kill their entire evening of D&amp;D. And when you drive over an hour to a buddy's house to play D&amp;D only to have your game night end in the first round of combat because you got turned to stone with a single failed die roll, that is BAD game design. Period.Heavy-handed and bad game mechanics like level drain would more often than not turn what should be a compelling and creepy vampire encounter into some bizarre and unfun meta-game version of tag. A game rule induced aversion to getting touched that never succeeded in mimicking any vampire encounter ever seen in fantasy literature or cinema. It was uniquely D&amp;D player behavior superficially influenced by bad game rules. It would be parody, but there is nothing funny about removing a level that took you 13 sessions to earn, but only a single hit to lose.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dragonblade, post: 4599324, member: 2804"] But these monsters were never "scary" in prior editions. I think a lot of people mistakenly equate player aversion to debilitating meta-game mechanics like level drain to in-game "fear" of a monster. My players were never afraid of a vampire any more in prior editions, than they were in this edition. They just didn't want their characters to be screwed over by level drain. Did that make them "afraid" of the vampire? Not really. Same thing with beholders. My players weren't scared of beholders, so much as they were afraid that a single failed die roll would kill their entire evening of D&D. And when you drive over an hour to a buddy's house to play D&D only to have your game night end in the first round of combat because you got turned to stone with a single failed die roll, that is BAD game design. Period. Heavy-handed and bad game mechanics like level drain would more often than not turn what should be a compelling and creepy vampire encounter into some bizarre and unfun meta-game version of tag. A game rule induced aversion to getting touched that never succeeded in mimicking any vampire encounter ever seen in fantasy literature or cinema. It was uniquely D&D player behavior superficially influenced by bad game rules. It would be parody, but there is nothing funny about removing a level that took you 13 sessions to earn, but only a single hit to lose. [/QUOTE]

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