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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5679172" data-attributes="member: 4937">I agree with you in as much as I believe the DM has the right to assign a golem any degree of intelligence that he wants.  However, I am of the school that says, once a DM describes the world (even if just to himself) he is obligated to follow that description.  If I write down that the creature has 40 hit points, then it has 40 hit points even if it unexpectedly takes 40 hit points in the first round. That means, if I assign a Golem a zero intelligence, I'm obligated to play that golem as if he had no more than zero intelligence to the best of my ability.  So, while I agree that my interpretation of 'zero intelligence' doesn't have to be a universal standard, I believe that the DM should think out ahead of time what his standard is and adhere to it.If the DM has the goal of achieving some effect in an encounter, he's obligated to produce a mechanical description of the encounter that he believes leads to that effect.  If the PC's thwart his design, he's obligated to stick to his prior decisions as much as possible without fudging the mechanics to achieve his prior design.   In a sense, yes. If the DM wants a monster with the ability to relentlessly pursue the characters, then he grant the monster some sort of prowess in either magical perception or sufficient intelligence.  But, if the monster is defined, then we are past the question of what the DM wants and on to the question of, "Given the resources described, what does the NPC do?"  This may or may not completely overthrow what I want as the DM, because - having finished my description - I'm no longer primarily wearing the hat of story teller but also now wearing the hat of referee and arbitor.  If I'm always running with the question, "What do I want here?", even during game time, then I cannot by any means be fair to the players.</blockquote>

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