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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 4147318" data-attributes="member: 2804">Here is where I have a problem with 3e. I just reached up to my bookshelf and grabbed the nearest monster book. MM3. I randomly flip through the book to find a monster, and here we go: Lurking Strangler.Its a tiny CR 2 aberration. Seems like a simple enough monster, everything looks pretty straightforward. But wait. It has eye rays. It can cast Cause Fear and Sleep. What does it say in the book? It says they act like the spell. Well, shoot. I don't remember the specifics on either of those spells.So, now I have to pull out my PHB, flip to those pages and read those spell descriptions. Aaarrghhh! What a pain. I just want to be able to run the monster out of the book. I don't want to EVER have to look at something in another book.Hmm, lets flip the page. Here is another CR 1 monster. The Mindshredder. CR 1, it should be simple enough to run. Umm wait, there is almost a whole page of combat information I now have to read through. Hmm, it has some Supernatural ability called "Thought Sense" and several paragraphs about how it works and how it interacts with Concealment. And it also has this ability to deal Wisdom damage, but wait the Wisdom damage heals it. But wait, if it grapples it does something different. Oh and sometimes the healing does temp hit points. GAAAHH!!Screw this, isn't there anything easier to run?Hmm, flip some more pages. Here is something called a Rage Walker. Its a CR 14. Holy cow, the thing has a two page entry! It has all sorts of special abilities with a paragraph of text describing each one. Plus it has 4 different spell like abilities which I now have to look up. Well, Bull's Strength is one. I'm pretty sure I have that down, so I just need to look up 3. But still!And these are premade monsters!! Heaven forbid I need to come up with a 10th level NPC wizard on my own. Hmm, what gear does he have? Well I need to know its AC and combat bonuses so I have to give him stats and gear. And then I have to pick spells and read all their descriptions and decides what's cast, and what's not. Calculate all his buffs, etc. Oh and then if a PC casts Dispel Magic, I have to go and recalculate everything in the middle of combat.This sucks. I'm not even having fun anymore. And all my players, who were on the edge of their seat a minute ago, are now bored and chatting OOC while I look all this crap up. My alternative is to spend a couple hours of prep before the game. But I don't want to do that either. Playing D&D shouldn't require me to do "homework". Its supposed to be a fun hobby for crying out loud! Sure, I could make something up. But what numbers should I use? What if I guess wrong and make the encounter too tough? 3e has no guidelines for anything like that.Pretty much the only monsters I can run out of a 3e monster book without having to look anything up are physical brute monsters that have no casting, special rules, or anything. That's not real exciting.Now let's see what solution 4e offers me. Let's see. Hmm, Hobgoblin Warcaster. Its a level 3 monster. Just looking at it, I instantly know its AC, and Defenses without having to deal with any buffs whatsoever. It has 4 different attacks. A staff hit, a staff hit with lightning damage, or it can blast foes at range for damage, or blast foes and knock them back.EVERYTHING I need to run this monster is right there in the statblock. It's clearly written, easy to understand, and no paragraphs of text discussing an endless variety of obscure corner cases. It has interesting magical attacks and doesn't require me to look up anything in another book.This is what I LOVE about 4e. This is why I think 4e will be hugely popular not only with players, but with DMs especially. I feel like I can once again return to my 2e DMing style when I ran entire games with zero prep time. Now, if you can do that with 3e and it works for you, then awesome. Good for you!But, for me, running 3e just sucks the creativity and desire to DM right out of me. 4e so far has had the entirely opposite effect.</blockquote>

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