Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6558554" data-attributes="member: 4937">Yes, I figured.Well, I figure that will go on until people realize why people got tired of it with 1e/2e, then the pendulum will swing the other direction.&nbsp; In the mean time, to each their own.As a player and DM, I got so tired of the NPC stats being incompatible with PC stats in 1e and wholly different systems and levers being pulled to try to maintain challenge, that I'm pretty sure that though I feel the 5e rules themselves are fairly tight and would need only a light hand, I'd be house ruling all over the MM to get things where I'd want them to be.I'm a huge fan of the work of Tracy Hickman, and there is this one encounter in I3 Pyramid that is at the same time both awesome and pathetic.&nbsp; In it, the party (potentially, if stealth or diplomacy fail) faces off against like 20 fanatic dervishes.&nbsp; According to the stat blocks, they are all 5HD monsters.&nbsp; But if they were really 5HD monsters, the encounter would be overwhelming.&nbsp;&nbsp; But Tracy lists the hit points for you, which are pretty much exactly the same results you'd expect if someone through 20 1d10's and recorded the hit points.&nbsp; By the rules, hit point totals like '1' or '2' are impossible for a 5HD monster.&nbsp; So in other words, those 20 5HD monsters are really just 20 1st level fighters with some boosts to attack bonus and saving throws.&nbsp; On the one hand, it's awesome how Tracy Hickman breaks the rules to produce the particular effect he's going for.&nbsp; On the other, we've got a rules set that has to be broken continually to achieve even simple effects, in large part because the only knob 1e really offered for tweaking a monster was HD.Not having some sort of system for monsters, even one that you specifically exempt a particular monster from, seems simple in the short term but is often complex in the long term - for example needing very different entries for both the monster and the PC race, or doing conversion when a former NPC becomes a PC.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6558554, member: 4937"] Yes, I figured. Well, I figure that will go on until people realize why people got tired of it with 1e/2e, then the pendulum will swing the other direction. In the mean time, to each their own. As a player and DM, I got so tired of the NPC stats being incompatible with PC stats in 1e and wholly different systems and levers being pulled to try to maintain challenge, that I'm pretty sure that though I feel the 5e rules themselves are fairly tight and would need only a light hand, I'd be house ruling all over the MM to get things where I'd want them to be. I'm a huge fan of the work of Tracy Hickman, and there is this one encounter in I3 Pyramid that is at the same time both awesome and pathetic. In it, the party (potentially, if stealth or diplomacy fail) faces off against like 20 fanatic dervishes. According to the stat blocks, they are all 5HD monsters. But if they were really 5HD monsters, the encounter would be overwhelming. But Tracy lists the hit points for you, which are pretty much exactly the same results you'd expect if someone through 20 1d10's and recorded the hit points. By the rules, hit point totals like '1' or '2' are impossible for a 5HD monster. So in other words, those 20 5HD monsters are really just 20 1st level fighters with some boosts to attack bonus and saving throws. On the one hand, it's awesome how Tracy Hickman breaks the rules to produce the particular effect he's going for. On the other, we've got a rules set that has to be broken continually to achieve even simple effects, in large part because the only knob 1e really offered for tweaking a monster was HD. Not having some sort of system for monsters, even one that you specifically exempt a particular monster from, seems simple in the short term but is often complex in the long term - for example needing very different entries for both the monster and the PC race, or doing conversion when a former NPC becomes a PC. [/QUOTE]

Verification