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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gorgon Zee" data-source="post: 6784325" data-attributes="member: 75787">Actually, I think your post makes the opposite point to what you were intending. You, the GM, made the battles very engaging, despite the fact that the monsters were not particularly so. Let me be really clear -- this is a good thing, and it is far preferable to have a GM who makes engaging fights with boring monsters, than autopilot combat with fun monsters. But as far as it pertains to this thread, the nature of the monsters and the 5E combat system does not seem to have helped you. Your statements about how fun the combat are have everything to do with your skill as a GM and nothing to do with the system. They read just as well as:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A lake battle with an orc as it sought to destroy the PCs' keel boat - the party cleric made excellent use of control water here.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A running combat with orcs through a trap-filled area of the dungeon which split the party.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">An intense fight between the PCs and an orc, battling near prismatic walls. One PC went down and another was almost pushed in before turning the tables on the orc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">An awesome battle between an orc and her goblin consorts. The elf rogue was seriously drained after this fight, maximum hit points in the single digits. She later became their ally for a time before the PCs betrayed her.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A fight with a orc and some goblins as the PCs were either trying not to fall off a huge demonic statue or struggling to climb out of the pit of bones at its feet. The halfling fighter/rogue leaped onto the back of the orc and crash landed it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The climactic battle was with n orc on a fiery battlefield with a horde of goblins roaming about. Two PCs died in this fight, but they managed to save the day.</li> </ul>As is always the case, a good GM trumps system. But I think, if you were to run the same fights in AD&D, they would have been much the same. In 3.5 or 4E they would have been more complex -- which can either be a good thing or a bad thing; allowing players to do more cool stuff or monsters to have differentiating abilities, or bogging the game down into standard attack pattern nova-1. Is 5E's combat too simple? My general feeling is that the monsters are a little too simple -- I way, WAY prefer 13th Age's take on monster design. For rules, I'm not sure. I haven't really experienced enough. But I do like to have monsters which I cannot just swap out for a generic one and have essentially the same combat.</blockquote>

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