D&D 4E 4e Monster List - Dwarven Nosepicker & Elven Butt Scratcher

[hong]

Killing monsters and taking their stuff isn't an activity your D&D game will cater to?

Did I ever mention that I made up rules to level up your gear, just so I wouldn't have to deal with loot-related hassles?

That's an indefensible position. The #1 thing that D&D is supposed to cater to is the absolutely natural and expected activity of picking up stink-bomb and sticky-bomb ammo off the kobolds you just killed, and using it to kill more kobolds. Rules that support this kind of play have the effect of pleasing both gamist and simulationist desires at the same time.

To be precise, you can pick up any stink bomb ammo left behind. I'll even be reasonable and say that each kobold has maybe 1-2 bombs left behind. However, said bombs will deteriorate within a day or so, and if the players want to make more, I'll tell them that their characters have better things to do than pretend to be kobolds.

(I ran a session once where the PCs fought some orcs who chucked flasks of green slime at them. Afterwards they picked up the flasks left behind and happily used them in the next battle. The flasks had gone stale by the end of the session though.)

I'm assuming that the driving needs of contrarian peacocking are getting in the way of your common sense here.

You'll be surprised how far common sense can serve the needs of my contrarian peacocking.

 

[hong]

Note that 3e had extensive and explicit rules about what to do with PCs grabbed Kuo-Toa sticky shields.

Which I dealt with by the cunning strategem of never using kuo-toas.

 

[BryonD]

I think the draw for me is that the specialized variations generally play differently and more interestingly than 3E class levelled up humanoids. A Gnoll clawfighter definitely has more mechanical and tactical appeal to me than slapping a gnoll with barbarian levels, 90% of the time resulting in just a generic 'rush in and beat face' monster with comparatively little depth.

Really? That is really sad to hear. I know that when I want a unique gnoll barbarian, I am able to produce decent variations pretty much 100% of the time, often on the fly if needed. And I'm pretty sure the gnoll clawfighter is going to be the same gnoll clawfighter the next time with zero added depth.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Did I ever mention that I made up rules to level up your gear, just so I wouldn't have to deal with loot-related hassles?

You may have, but I probably lost it in the signal-to-noise ratio.

 

[hong]

You may have, but I probably lost it in the signal-to-noise ratio.

Well, let me rectify that problem posthaste. It would be a terrible thing indeed if people were to miss out on my pimping my stuff in the midst of my non-pimping activities. Thank you, Wulf Ratbane, for giving me this opportunity to pimp my stuff!

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Well, let me rectify that problem posthaste. It would be a terrible thing indeed if people were to miss out on my pimping my stuff in the midst of my non-pimping activities. Thank you, Wulf Ratbane, for giving me this opportunity to pimp my stuff!

You are certainly welcome. I am an optimist at heart-- if you'd been on my ignore list for the past 5 years, we would never have had the chance for this conversation.

 

[hong]

You are certainly welcome. I am an optimist at heart-- if you'd been on my ignore list for the past 5 years, we would never have had the chance for this conversation.

I'm a pessimist at heart. That's why I never ignore people either.

 

[Dausuul]

Really? That is really sad to hear. I know that when I want a unique gnoll barbarian, I am able to produce decent variations pretty much 100% of the time, often on the fly if needed. And I'm pretty sure the gnoll clawfighter is going to be the same gnoll clawfighter the next time with zero added depth.

What? You mean the monster stats won't rewrite themselves on the page after I use the monster? Man, my faith in 4E just went down the tubes.

 

[TwoSix]

Really? That is really sad to hear. I know that when I want a unique gnoll barbarian, I am able to produce decent variations pretty much 100% of the time, often on the fly if needed. And I'm pretty sure the gnoll clawfighter is going to be the same gnoll clawfighter the next time with zero added depth.

You'll be happy to note, however, that I'll be able to produce gnoll clawfighter variations 100% of the time as well, on the fly as needed. I could do it easily in 3e, I'll be able to do it in 4e just as easily but without feeling like I'm violating the rules in doing so.

 

[Carnivorous_Bean]

Really? That is really sad to hear. I know that when I want a unique gnoll barbarian, I am able to produce decent variations pretty much 100% of the time, often on the fly if needed. And I'm pretty sure the gnoll clawfighter is going to be the same gnoll clawfighter the next time with zero added depth.

I'm sure that Roman legionairies, Scottish schiltron pikemen, Spanish sword-and-buckler men, Japanese ashigaru spearmen, Egyptian nakhtu-aa, Assyrian charioteers, etc., all displayed mechanically unique fighting styles. *rolleyes*

Three things to remember here:

1. The "grunt" monsters in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions were all exactly the same. They didn't get any added depth the second, tenth, or hundredth time you met them, either. Except that in 1st and 2nd edition, there was no built-in way to even change them without winging it totally, and in 3rd edition, the 'base' monsters were nothing but a low hit point total and a damage die -- no extra abilities to make them interesting or culturally distinct.

2. You can still create unique monster champions and fiddle with the stats of the existing monsters. So nothing has changed in that regard. You want a gnoll barbarian? Knock yourself out -- there are the rules, there are the gnolls, go get 'em!

3. Demanding that a monster book be written so that a monster entry will be mechanically different for every single last individual of a monster race is simply a total impossibility. Do you expect 2,000,000 pages of individual gnoll clawfighters, whose individual differences will be so small from an in-game perspective that it will be impossible to detect in play?