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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JVisgaitis" data-source="post: 3731473" data-attributes="member: 4177">You don't need rules for any of that. That's where it comes down to the designer and the way that the monsters are written and fit into the existing world. I'm not worried about making the monsters different from the PCs in 4th Edition.Simplification is certainly the primary goal, but when a monster is as complicated as a PC and the DM needs to run all of those NPCs and beasties it does the exact opposite. My player knows how his Barbarian Rage works and what bonuses he gets because he plays that character all of the time.As the DM, I can't possibly keep up with characters that complex and I probably run around 8 to 10 characters per session. If I roll a random encounter and have to pick something out of the book? Forget it. Let's take a break guys while I slog through this. Honestly, as much of a rules gear head as I am, a lot of times I just fake it and there is stuff I miss. If monsters write ups are done in an easy manner and I can get an overview of their tactics by reading a short paragraph or just the statblock I'm all for it.My only worry with this design choice is that they are pigeon holing the monsters too far. Every encounter should be something different and I was never a fan of the tactics section in the 3.5 MM. Pit Fiends do this in the 1st round, this in the 2nd round, rinse repeat. I just hope I don't end up playing in games where every time I fight Orcs or Kobolds its all the same stuff.Going back to the monsters being "setting elements, world elements, cultural fantasy salad dressing, villains, characters, and potential ninjas" I am worried that with so little space dedicated to each monster in the MM that they won't go into a monsters background and ecology enough. Cramming 300+ monsters into a 288 page book is an amazing feat. Something has to give. I highly doubt that they could make the stats so short and still have enough room to explain what the monster is about, how they live, what they do, etc.I could be wrong, but I know however I tried to condense Denizens of Avadnu I doubt I could ever get all of the fluff, stats, and art in and still manage to fit one monster per page. That's just insanity.</blockquote>

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