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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 8049011" data-attributes="member: 53980">I disagree. I think all it means is that there are different ways to represent that creature, because reality is too complicated to model perfectly, therefore we must use abstractions.I mean, I don't think that anyone is suggesting that every guard uses the same basic stat block from the MM. Tom the guard might be significantly smarter than his fellow guardsman, Steve. Unless Tom is actually relevant in some way, you probably won't bother to actually modify the stat block to reflect this. But if he becomes a relevant character for some reason (Tom was just another guard in a throwaway encounter on their way to break a friend out of jail, but they managed to convince Tom to join with the party) then suddenly he has depth and personality and an Int score that's several points higher than what a typical guard has. Does this make Tom nothing more than a game piece? I doubt most (if any) DMs name and generate a backstory for every throwaway monster the PCs encounter.</blockquote>