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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Machiavelli" data-source="post: 3224191" data-attributes="member: 40964">When I DM, I do so as the benevolent, omnipotent god of the microcosm.If players call me out on a stat, I often have little more than some notes scribbled on a piece of paper to back me up.  Does that creature have fire resistence?  Well, I DID say it had a glossy, almost obsidian-black hide of scales, so when the wizard Fireballs it, it doesn't drop like he expected it to.  If the wizard had used a lightening bolt, the question would not have come up, so who's to say what that obsidion hide was for?  Perhaps it was the focus for a powerful innate spell-like ability that the creature would use as a last-ditch means of defending itself, if only that lightning bolt hadn't killed it too quickly!It takes some familiarity with normal creature stats to just wing it like that, and I suffer from no illusions of this being anything but railroading.  However, the dice are still used, criticals are still scored, supposedly powerful enemies are dropped in a lucky hit... it may be far less random than it would be if I statted everything and left the outcome only in the "hands" of the dice, but it's no less exciting.That said, if I ever had to DM for someone who insists upon pre-statted everything, I would go nuts.  That's too much work.</blockquote>