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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5406067" data-attributes="member: 2011">Actually, I think that it's no big deal.If I look at the PC Essentials Thief in our group, he gets Combat Advantage nearly every single round, melee or ranged attack.That's +2 for his entire career.There is nothing wrong with blowing off WotC's rules about not adding item bonuses to monsters.Yes, I know this sounds radical, but the math allows for it. It's just a slightly tougher encounter.Let's take a +1 level weapon for a monster at level 1 through 5 or so.The monster had a 50% chance to hit a given PC for 8.5 damage per round (d8+4). Now, it has a 55% chance to hit a given PC for 9.5 damage per round.It's dpr goes from 4.425 to 5.35 or less than 1 extra damage per round. Fighting one on one against a first level PC, that typically means that it will take the PC down in 5 rounds instead of 6 (less dramatic for PCs higher than first level). At most, this is as if the monster were 1 level higher than normal. So, the DM takes that into account. When calculating XP, he assigns the monster one more level, the players get the bonus XP and the players get the magic weapon when they win.Win win. More XP and the magic weapon isn't just found lying in a hole somewhere. The players feel like they accomplished something real by taking out the monster and getting its magic weapon.For higher level monsters, the calculations become a little more complex, but no matter how powerful of an item that the DM gives the monster, it is never as potent as throwing an additional monster into the mix.A 25th level monster with a +6 weapon is never as potent as two 25th level monsters. If the two monsters hit 50% of the time, that's 100% normal damage. The one monster only hits 80% of the time for normal damage +6. The same does not apply for defensive items. If you want to give the monsters a defensive item boost, that's ok. But, I would make it half item round up (i.e. +1 item gives +1, +5 item gives +3, etc.). It makes the monster harder to hit, but not impossible to hit.Rule of thumb for XP increase is: half item round up added to the level of the monster for XP for weapons, third item round down added to the level of the monster for XP for defensive item.This approach makes more sense than WotC's approach, but the DM has to be cognizant that the monster is a bit tougher and hence, has to boost the encounter XP to compensate.</blockquote>

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