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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8826145" data-attributes="member: 6877472">This is something that really bothered me when I played 4e.  You'd often come across creatures that could perform a maneuver that players could not replicate.  If it was due to a supernatural or racial ability, that was fine; maybe you needed a specific power source to replicate it, or it hinged on some unique ability a species of monster possessed.But sometimes, it was "just this thing that this monster does".  Early in 4e, you could trust that all Kobolds were Shifty, or that all Halflings could force you to reroll an attack.  But as the edition progressed, you started to see things like the Bugbear Strangler, who could garrote an enemy and then use them as a living shield while they choked out their victim.And you stop and go "wait, why can only Bugbears do that?".  Surely anyone with powerful upper body strength should be able to garrote someone?As it happens, this was eventually answered in Dragon 373 and Heroes of Shadow, as the Executioner Assassin could learn to do this (and a series of four Multiclass Feats were created so that other classes could do so as well), but it still was a little hard to believe that this required such specialized training when every Bugbear Strangler could do it.I'm not saying that NPC's should follow the same rules as PC's; don't get me wrong, it's nice when they do, but I remember the headache of building d20-era enemies.  Some level of "it has X numbers and Y abilities because it needs to" is perfectly fine.But it comes down to how you see the game, and how much you care about worldbuilding and immersion.  A one-off bad guy with a unique supernatural power?  Sure, I can buy that.  A subrace of Doppleganger that has reactive camouflage like the Predator or Major Kusanagi?  Sure, I can buy that too.A Kobold who gets advantage attacking something one of his buddies is standing next to?  Seems dubious (especially now that PC Kobolds have lost this ability!).  Surely anyone could train to work together as a team?Or how about why all Goblins can Hide as a bonus action.  What lets them do this, and not just any small-sized, nimble race known for their sneakiness?  I think it just makes the game better when there are answers to these questions that are more involved than "that's just how the game is".</blockquote>

Verification