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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jared Rascher" data-source="post: 3731902" data-attributes="member: 28825">I'm actually kind of hopeful in this new paradigm, with a few reservations.  My hopes are (and I think the dragon example actually does show things moving in the right direction) that monsters will have time to do something that feels right for the monster while not doing something that isn't really dangerous for the PCs.  Case in point, from my own campaigns.  When demons show up, especially reasonably powerful ones, I want there to be a feeling of unholy and chaotic power along with the physical threat they possess.  I had my PCs run into hezrous a few times, and this is what I discovered.1.  If the PCs are too far below the hezrou, and it uses something like blasphemy, you've more or less doomed them.  So if you have a non-standard size party, you can't "play up" and let them have an encounter with these guys because 8 or 4 characters at a level that is too low doesn't matter, they will just wipe them out, no fun being had by anyone.2.  If the PCs are high enough level that powers like blasphemy isn't a big deal, then suddenly it becomes more of an automatic assumption that the hezrou should slam the casters as fast as he can, or maybe summon help, rather than use any of his "chaos and evil" feeling powers.If the hezrou is just pounding the PCs, and maybe teleporting away, he doesn't feel all that demonic, just like a mobile basher.  He might as well be an ogre with a helm of teleportation for as much as he feels like a demon.So now, looking at the dragon encounter, and applying some of the "generic" priciples of that fight to redesigning the hezrou, lets say that the PCs close on this guy to attack him.  Instead of having a list of powers and having to chose between them or bashing the PCs, it works like this.The hezrou throws its head back and speaks some words of Dark Speech as a swift action, then charges the cleric and pummels him.  The dark speech weakens and damages the party, and then they close on him and tear into him with their weapons.The hezrou can use his Dark Speech ability again two more times per encounter, but since he's been swarmed, he uses his Abyssal Burst ability, which he can only once per encounter as a standard action, to blow everyone away from him 10 feet.  Next round, the hezrou charges the cleric again, while uttering Dark Speech, and the figher manages to close on him with a charge as well, and the wizard blasts him with a force spell.  He takes serious damage, and now that he is down to 50% of his hit points, his free action teleport triggers and he moves safely away.The next round, the hezrou uses another once per encounter ability to drain hit points from the PCs to heal itself, and charges back into battle.  This time the PCs manage to get him down to 25% of his hit points, and his ability to summon a creature automatically triggers, summoning a minor demon (that's mainly there to slow down the PCs and divide their attention).The point being it feels more "demonic" being able to throw fewer abilities that are either swift actions or automatically triggered actions.  No worrying about using tactics that might be suboptimal just to make it feel more "demonic" rather than just a tank with a lot of unused options.On the other hand, I do like the idea that some creatures had the ability to do certain things.  I don't care if a dragon doesn't have 20 levels of spellcasting like they do now, but I do hope that there is some way for a powerful dragon to at least use high level spells, if they want too.  I don't care if they only have one or two spells that they can use in the encounter as long as they retain the ability to use powerful magic as an option.  That having been said, I know having 20 levels  (or even 10) of spells makes a dragon have so many options, many of which are useless to them, that they are a nightmare to figure out how to make feel "draconic."As I said, I hope there is enough "grandfathering" to keep spellcasting monsters having some kind of spellcasting options to them, even if the options for them in a given combat are much more limited  (but limited to the higher end of what they used to be able to do, and thus limited to the more useful side of things).</blockquote>

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