Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xetheral" data-source="post: 7913900" data-attributes="member: 6802765">From my standpoint, where the difference in mechanics between PC and NPCs becomes most incongruous is when the same ability is handled differently.The most egregious example I'm familiar with is the Drow. An 11th-level PC Drow who wants to make poison attacks dealing 3d6 poison damage with their sword has to clear several hurdles: they have to be at least a third level Thief (for the Fast Hands ability to be able to apply poison as a bonus action), they're limited to one poisoned attack per round, and they have to pay 200 gold per dose of Serpent Venom. Even if they do all of the above, the 3d6 poison damage can be halved by a low DC 11 Con save.By contrast, an 11HD Drow NPC doesn't need to spend actions poisoning their blade, all of their melee attacks are poisoned, they don't need to spend money buying poison, and the poison damage permits no saving throw at all. And if the Drow PC kills the Drow NPC, there isn't any remaining poison to loot, because somehow the NPCs always have exactly as many doses of poison as the number of attacks they make before being defeated, and never more.Sure, the Drow NPCs with these poison mechanics may be appropriately powerful for their CR, but using them against any PC character built to focus on poison (especially a Drow) is going to make the player feel awful. Their (very) heavy investment in the ability to use poisons in combat is completely trivialized by every 11HD Drow warrior. (Heck, even the 3HD Drow warriors get actionless, free 200 GP poison on every crossbow attack, and never drop any when killed. If a PC wants to use Drow sleep poison, it's cheaper to hire 3HD Drow with unlimited doses than it is to buy just the poison!)I would view allowing an NPC to bypass concentration restrictions (absent an artifact, or similar) as similarly problematic. When it's the same ability (e.g. poisoning weapons, spellcasting) it should function the same way for PCs and NPCs. Otherwise the rules (and the game world) come across as arbitrary.</blockquote>

Verification