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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7665800" data-attributes="member: 42582">My experience was very different. Reading the 4e Monster Manuals and players' manuals (not the general rules, but the power lists) makes me want to see these things in play (and to imagine what might happen in the course of such play).It's not the same as reading a story, obviously. But I don't really read RPG books for story.I had the exact opposite reaction on both counts.It seemed to me obvious how "1d10 radiant damage and push 2 + immobilised" equated to Turning Undead: the undead were blasted by holy light, were driven back from the caster, and cowered in despair. In play it works out like this too, but I could see it in the stat block.The two most complex creature powers I remember GMing are both from MM3: some of the ones on the Pact Hag; and the Chained Cambion. The Pact Hag has a range of dominating and similar control effects, but for some of them their "pactish" nature is really brought out.On the other hand, the Chained Cambion has one of the best effects I've ever encountered, Mind Shackles. The text of the power is:Two enemies [of the Chained Cambion] adjacent to each other in a close burst 5 are psychically shackled (save ends; each enemy makes a separate saving throw against this effect). While psychically shackled, an enemy takes 10 psychic damage at the start and the end of its turn if it isn't adjacent to the other creature that was affected by this power.When you read this power it may not be immediately obvious what it is getting at. Once you read the Chained Cambion description ("Wrapped in chains and masked with a gruesome iron visage, a chained cambion radiates pain, rage, and frustration") it starts to make more sense - the cambion, being the spiteful type, vents its frustration by making others endure it.Then when you see it in play, it becomes absolutely awesome - or at least, it did for me. The two affected targets were a melee fighter and an archer - so already they weren't that keen on being shackled together. And then they were standing on the roof of a small shrine, and had to find a way to get down without becoming separated. So the frustration gradually increases. And then, when one of them saves but the other doesn't, the one who has saved has to decide whether to submit to further frustrating chaining so as to protect his ally from the psychic damage, or whether to callously move away and just let the other suffer alone.I want a system that can give me mechanical elements that will work like this in play.The Essentials verbiage, on the other hand, I find completely off-putting. Either show me mechanics that will make it true in play (how does the PHB tell me that dwarves are hardy? because they get Second Wind as a minor action!), or say nothing at all. But long descriptions that are divorced from the play experience, and sometimes are misleading as to they way some power or ability will actually play out at the table, are not very interesting to me. When I look through my Essentials books, I skip over all that stuff so I can see what the mechanics are, and hence really see what sort of fiction is going to be created by using this stuff in a game.</blockquote>

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