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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5933899" data-attributes="member: 54877">It's possible that the hit point and damage scaling will be more erratic or tiered than one would guess from the article alone. Just from what we have seen thus far, it is possible, for example, that creatures come in several effective types:&nbsp; PCs, &quot;effectively minions&quot;, etc.&nbsp; &nbsp;Creatures that are effectively minions have hit points and damage that start with rats and kobolds, and then expand very slowly over 20 levels or so.&nbsp; At higher levels, these are underage trolls, proto-gelatinious cubes, etc.&nbsp; They are a threat in numbers, and at higher levels may have some special abilities that make them extremely dangerous to low-level characters, but even enough kobolds can take them out.&nbsp;Then you've got standard monsters and/or PCs.&nbsp; The scaling of hit points and damage starts with something like PCs, and runs briskly up from there, but not completely out of control.&nbsp; (And remember, the current playtest numbers are deliberately inflated here.)&nbsp; In other words, once testing is done, these numbers will be set at the lowest possible scaling to alow the PCs to perform as expected versus monsters in this same group--but no lower.&nbsp;Then you've got &quot;elites&quot;, &quot;epics&quot;, whatever you want to call them.&nbsp; Perhaps some of these will have hit points and damage that go through the stratosphere.&nbsp; But thanks to the preceding, you can also have damage resistance, multiple actions as a threat, and any number of such things.&nbsp; That is, instead of having to standardize on one, any of those work as expected in isolation.&nbsp; Thus, you can mix and match to get the flavor of the creature.&nbsp; Elite Wraiths perhaps don't have extra actions or crazy hit points, but do have some DR or other defenses that make them hard to hurt.&nbsp; &nbsp;Heh.&nbsp; The whole thing is a natural outgrowth of the focus on the math that started with 3E, intensified in 3.5, and got really serious over the course of 4E.&nbsp; They've started to really grapple with the side implications of the math, not merely the main line.&nbsp; Be interesting to see how this shakes out.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5933899, member: 54877"] It's possible that the hit point and damage scaling will be more erratic or tiered than one would guess from the article alone. Just from what we have seen thus far, it is possible, for example, that creatures come in several effective types: PCs, "effectively minions", etc. Creatures that are effectively minions have hit points and damage that start with rats and kobolds, and then expand very slowly over 20 levels or so. At higher levels, these are underage trolls, proto-gelatinious cubes, etc. They are a threat in numbers, and at higher levels may have some special abilities that make them extremely dangerous to low-level characters, but even enough kobolds can take them out. Then you've got standard monsters and/or PCs. The scaling of hit points and damage starts with something like PCs, and runs briskly up from there, but not completely out of control. (And remember, the current playtest numbers are deliberately inflated here.) In other words, once testing is done,[B] these numbers will be set at the lowest possible scaling to alow the PCs to perform as expected versus monsters in this same group--but no lower[/B]. Then you've got "elites", "epics", whatever you want to call them. Perhaps some of these will have hit points and damage that go through the stratosphere. But thanks to the preceding, you can [B]also[/B] have damage resistance, multiple actions as a threat, and any number of such things. That is, instead of having to standardize on one, any of those work as expected in isolation. Thus, you can mix and match to get the flavor of the creature. Elite Wraiths perhaps don't have extra actions or crazy hit points, but do have some DR or other defenses that make them hard to hurt. Heh. The whole thing is a natural outgrowth of the focus on the math that started with 3E, intensified in 3.5, and got really serious over the course of 4E. They've started to really grapple with the side implications of the math, not merely the main line. Be interesting to see how this shakes out. [/QUOTE]

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