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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7753566" data-attributes="member: 29398">Though I'd known monster hit points were locked in in 4e module write-ups (as has been the norm since day 1) I never noticed until now that 4e locks monster h.p. in at the MM level as well.  3e and 5e give a suggested number but also give the dice and bonuses if you want to roll yer own.Seems a little buttoned-down, that there's no ranges given.Were it me I'd vary them up a little, if only to throw off MM-savvy players from knowing exactly how many h.p. a foe has.Depends how big a change you make, I suppose.  Going up by 10% - who cares?  Going up by double - yeah, now you're into a different pay grade.But surely 4e gave the DM a method or guidelines for calculating xp for altered or homebrew monsters, didn't it?  If yes, and the change is significant enough to warrant a revised xp award, why not just use those guidelines?Yeah, I was thinking of 5e there, which does give a standardized damage value followed by a range.Which in a way isn't surprising.  Original 2e was in many ways a codification of what had become quasi-standard practices during 1e's run (well, that and some knee-jerk reaction to the Satanic panic), and DM fudging was certainly common enough long before 2e came around. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />And all of this is somewhat countered in the 1e DMG when Gygax in effect says to the DM that it's your game to design and play as you like. (e.g. see the first couple of paragraphs in the preface - he sets this tone with the first words in the book!)  This in effect gives the DM carte blanche to kitbash, to tweak or change or ignore rules, and to make it "suit [your] personal tastes".The next paragraph does go on to caution the DM against going overboard with such things, but the gate's already open by this point. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Lanefan</blockquote>

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