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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6890195" data-attributes="member: 42582">Let me have another go.In 3E big dragons can have natural armour bonuses of +30 or more. Suppose we relabelled them as "level adjustment" bonuses - would 3E become, in actual play, any less simulationist? My contention is no, it wouldn't, because natural armour doesn't actually mean anything in the fiction. All it is is a big number to balance against the big attack bonuses of high level PCs. (Contrast, say, Rolemaster, where dragons have armour that does have ingame meaning: hides as tough as tortoise shells, as mail, as plate, etc., with bonuses that can be meaningfully correlated to the sorts of bonuses that magic armour gives.)That's the point of my reference to 4e. In 4e, monsters have a level adjustment bonus to AC. Suppose we relabelled that as a "natural armour" bonus? Would that make 4e into a more simulationist game? Again, I don't see how it would.</blockquote>