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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 4031085" data-attributes="member: 1054">(I deleted some things to avoid over-quoting; I left just the parts I wanted to address...)OK. I've run into the 'loot the bodies' problem in my own games (gods, have I!), but abstracting out equipment to a vague 'NPC bonus' just slams right into my willing suspension of disbelief. It also leaves me with issues regarding equipment-affecting spells, abilities, and tactics -- if I just describe an ogre as "Wearing a battered breastplate", and someone removes that somehow, his AC ought to go down, and if the MM entry for "Ogre" likewise includes "assumed equipment", I don't know how much is breastplate and how much is ogre hide. "Wing it!" says the peanut gallery. Yeah, I can, but today I decide it's +3 and tomorrow I forget and it's +4, and that kind of inconsistency IS noted by players and further handwaving about "Uh, these are the rare ironhide ogres of the northern passes, yeah..." just muddies the waters more. 3x's wall-o-numbers that broke down every factor in AC, to-hit, damage, etc might have been overwhelming, but they were damn useful in real play.I much prefer "Feat<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" />ower Attack" to "building power attack into his stats", at least if that's not somehow made explicit. I understand you don't want to give monsters feats in 4e, but mechanistic systems like "Trait:Wild Attacker. +2 damage/-2 to hit", as something I can bolt on to any monster (and which is explicitly noted as pre-bolted to the Ogre) works better for me.I suppose my confusion is about whether, in game terms, equipment is "flavor text" or "real". That is, if I say "Monster X does Y damage", it doesn't matter if I describe him as having a greatsword, a maul, or a rabid weasel on pole; it does Y damage. But for the PCs, in turn, the weapons DO matter (i'm guessing...). If a PC is "expected" to do 10 points of damage/round at his level but decides he wants to use a rusty dagger, he will, I'm guessing, do less damage than anticipated.I dunno. I love Hero System, which is much the same thing -- I can build a 4d6 AP HKA and call it a wooden toothpick, but it seems very odd in D&D, which was always more simulationist. (Remember weapon type vs. AC? Good times, good times...)</blockquote>

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