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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 4032062" data-attributes="member: 1054">Based on the Pit Fiend stat block, though, this isn't explicitly 'called out', meaning a slowdown while the DM checks on armor values. Also, again WRT the pit fiend, my instinct would be that a devil-forged, rune-encrusted breastplate is, in fact, magical (at least the flavor text implies it), and so should grant a higher AC bonus than a breastplate made by Fred the Smith, but without a clear division in the AC score, that's not easy to determine. (Armor Class==Reflex Defense+Armor Bonus, I am guessing from SWSE, but is that armor bonus, in the case of the Pit fiend, 100% equipment? Naked, he is no tougher than a human of the same level? Or should I just assume monsters (or any sort) don't have magic armor unless I decide to give it to them, and use default values?)Or maybe there's no way to remove/nullify/weaken armor in 4e, making it moot in play. However, it seems extremely likely that disarm/sunder will still be in the game, so I wonder why natural weapons for things like the Pit Fiend, with its huge claws, are not listed. This situation is very common in actual play. Do all monsters of a given level/size/role do 'fixed' unarmed damage? ("Pit fiend is a 26th level Large Leader, so he does 1d6+Strength")I personally feel the desire to simplify stat blocks by not calling out how numbers are generated will lead to less simplicity in play as underlying causes of those numbers (dexterity, armor, etc) change due to player actions and the DM must make on-the-fly adjustments and quickly reverse-engineer the numbers in his head. The incidence of "monsters" or throwaway opponents entering longer-term play is high in many games, and the smoother the transition from "combat stats" to "real stats", the easier it is for a DM to deal with the expectedly unexpected. While experienced DMs can do the breakouts mentally, I worry that new DMs will respond to innovative player actions with "You can't do that, there's no rules for it".Likewise, if I want to add classes/equipment to a monster, starting with the "naked" monster, I need to go back and reverse-engineer the stats for an unarmored, unweaponed, version, then add in the equipment bonuses. Ths might be a trivial time addition in comparison to the time saved by simplification in other areas, of course, getting back to the whole "We haven't seen the whole system" problem.</blockquote>

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