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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khuxan" data-source="post: 4017876" data-attributes="member: 38801">Because this is a thread to discuss EP's 4th edition products (if any) not their 3rd edition products.If the game is obscure, complicated and arcane, it certainly is a fault of the game. We've been playing 3e D&D casually for over six years - if we can't play high-level characters by that time, there's either something seriously wrong with the game or with us.Because they inflate the statblock, making it harder to use when running the monster in a fight.The 3.5 statblock for the pit fiend is bloated with special abilities. It would underpower the monster to remove them, but it creates a huge pressure on the DM to keep track of everything. A DM has to keep track of:Single attackFull attack (which can involve up to 16 dice rolls)ConstrictFear auraImproved grabDR 15/good and silverFire immunityPoison immunityAcid resistance 10Cold resistance 10Regeneration 5SR 32BluffIntimidateSpellcraftTumbleCleaveGreat CleavePower AttackQuicken Spell-like AbilityPoisonBlasphemyCreate undeadFireballGreater dispel magicGreater teleportInvisibilityMagic circle against goodMass hold monsterPersistent imagePower word stunUnholy auraMeteor swarm2 bearded devils (or similar)That places a huge onus on the DM to wade through all those options each round and wade through all those resistances/immunities after each attack/spell - especially given the creature's tactic section only uses nine of those options. It's not viable to strike out unholy aura, the resistances, the immunities, and the regeneration because that will underpower the monster - far better that the monster is balanced without them from the beginning.I'm happy to have a section called "Out of Combat Powers" or "Optional Pit Fiend Powers" but the base pit fiend should not have so many powers that it will never end up using in a fight.</blockquote>

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