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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FourthBear" data-source="post: 4041435" data-attributes="member: 55846">I can certainly see why, for a specific encounter, bugbears capable of sneaking up, grabbing foes and using them as shields would be pretty fun.  And from Mearls' playtest report, it probably was pretty fun.  For many players and designers, that's pretty much all it requires to justify such an ability: does it make for a fun encounter?  Obviously, you disagree, as you feel that realism, system coherence and several other factors play a role that would cause you to feel that Living Shield wouldn't be a good bugbear special ability.  In which, it seems straightforward enough for you not to ever use bugbear stranglers in a campaign you DM for.  Can people have plenty of fun without such special abilities?  Sure.  In fact, I've had fun in many roleplaying games without any supernatural powers whatsoever.  There are a number of gamers who feel that supernatural powers are an unnecessary and clumsy addition to RPGs and have also argued that games like D&D don't need magic at all.  Each of us must make decisions to judge when system exceptions like Living Shield may make for a fun encounter, even though it may strain system coherence.  I certainly don't think that system coherence should automatically win over exceptions that may prove to be a lot of fun.</blockquote>