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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crosswind" data-source="post: 4153015" data-attributes="member: 36615">With all due respect, Gnome, I think even you might admit that DMs who enjoy spending 3 hours out-of-game to resolve a war are in the minority, yes?I admire your valiant stand (and appreciate Lizard's insightful contributions), but:4E stats out NPCs with the things they are likely to use.  Be it spells, skills, stats.  This makes it a -lot- easier for a -lot- of DMs to prepare for sessions.  I think we can all agree that making it easier for DMs to prepare for sessions is a good thing, yes?There are some DMs who want more detail in their NPCs - you and Lizard, for instance.  I can't tell if you want this extra detail for all NPCs, or just important ones, but...there is nothing really preventing you from making your NPCs as detailed as you like.  Take the entries in the Monster Manual, and add the relevant skills.  Make your Pit Fiend also a master ballerina.  Give him rogue sneak attack, if you like.I don't -think- this is any harder than adding rogue levels to him.  The only uncertainty involved is how it changes his CR.  But let's be serious - you can absolutely make builds in 3.5 that have the same CR, but are universally better.  Adding certain templates to monsters makes them way more powerful than the CR change would indicate, etcetera.  So it does not seem that 4th edition hinders you in any way, here.  If anything, it gives you the freedom to make your NPCs however you like.Lizard, you are certainly not alone in liking to have deep, involved worlds.  The campaign that I currently play in is detailed and pretty excellent.  But I don't really see how 3.X supports this better than 4th edition - other than the "Shallow Rules = Shallow Setting", which I find to be entirely untrue.If anything, ease of creating and manipulating NPCs should make it easier for DMs to focus on their world.Finally (and this post is poorly structured, for which I apologize) - there is no ability that PCs have that NPCs cannot also possess.  The setting I play in is low-powered, and low-level PCs are not heroes.  They are normal people, on par with NPCs, who might become heroes.    4E isn't going to change this in our setting in any way - I don't see why it would have to.Summary:3.X hindered our style of gameplay, by forcing our GM to follow intricate, involved rules to create the diverse array of NPCs he wanted us to meet/interact with in the world.  It enabled Lizard to create, authoritatively, the diverse array of NPCs he wanted his PCs to interact with.4.X will give our DM blueprints and easy ways to customize them.  It also won't stop Lizard from creating diverse arrays of NPCs, but it might make it harder for him.So I understand your objection, but I feel that you're a minority among gamers - also, that the 3.X approach was a barrier to entry for aspiring DMs.  -Cross</blockquote>

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