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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9814774" data-attributes="member: 29398">If you lock them all into having levels and classes and so forth, then sure; I'd agree.What I want as DM is something that says in hard numbers "this creature, on average, is as strong as the strongest possible human, as smart as the average bag of hammers, not very wise, has average dexterity, can withstand more abuse than a vending machine, and is as ugly as sin".  "Typical stats: Str 22, Int 4, Wis 8, Dex 11, Con 20, Cha 6" handles that much more precisely and in way fewer words.Monsters don't.  NPC opponents that are PC-playable species do; it's non-negotiable with me that PCs are representative of their species and NPCs of that species work the same as do PCs.Again, let's separate monsters and NPCs, as there's a massive difference between them.If I'm throwing a bunch of Elves at the party as foes it's ironclad those Elves will be created so as to fall within PC guidelines.  If I'm throwing a bunch of Demons at the party, however, all such constraints go flying out the window.In either case, I don't care how many encounters they're meant to survive through.If you're looking at 3e as your go-to example of this, keep in mind that 3e gets it wrong too: the power curve is too steep.I;m not so worried about class progression (other then Fighter, a useful paradigm which all warrior species can use).  I just want to know the base stats so I know what bonuses or penalties to assign.  I also don't want asymemetrical balance: a 5th-level Elf Cleric is a 5th-level Elf Cleric; and regardless of whether or not it has a little "PC" sticker on its forehead the two of them should be completely interchangeable.Put another way: in the fiction, they are indistinguishable; which means that in their mechanics they should also be indistinguishable.</blockquote>

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