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: 8268180" data-attributes="member: 6802765">You appear to be approaching your examples as a DM choosing which mechanical representation of an Ogre will be the most fun for a party of a particular level. That works great in a CaS playstyle, where the DM is planning the encounters with an eye towards fun and balance.But in a CaW playstyle, that's not the DM's role. Instead, encounters arise organically, when either the party or their opponents try to engage and the other side is either unwilling or unable to avoid contact. The party's decision on when and where to fight isn't a meaningful choice unless it's an informed decision, and having multiple possible mechanical representations of the same monster make it very hard for the PCs to be informed of the capabilities of their opponents (including whether those opponents are biased towards offense or defense).For example, if a 12th level party successfully learns that the enemy has sent a group of N Ogres to blockade a mountain pass, the strategic value of that information depends on the players having some idea of the capabilities of an Ogre. If the mechanical representation of an Ogre could differ from the characters' experience with Ogres (maybe the last time they fought an Ogre was 1st level), the strategic intel they worked hard to get is much less valuable, undermining the point of the CaW playstyle.Variable statblocks also complicate a CaW DM's job, vis-a-vis trying to determine the NPCs' strategy. Does the enemy leader know what statblocks the deployed Ogres will be using? Does the leader think of his Ogres as a powerful independent force, or only as support for a more powerful creature (i.e. minions deployed alone are pretty useless)? The utility of Ogres as a weapon against the PCs (and thus how to deploy them) depends a lot on how the Ogres are going to be represented mechanically. Also, it's entirely possible that the deployment of the Ogres to block the pass wasn't directed at the PCs, but instead at a third party. If the mechanical representation of the Ogres changes based on who the Ogres are fighting, that really complicates the enemy's attempts to make good straetgic use of their Ogres.</blockquote>

Verification