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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2925800" data-attributes="member: 26473">I think too many different kinds of monsters and humanoids strains credulity, so I tend to limit the list of each that are present in my fantasy games. The funny thing is, as Piratecat astutely alludes to, is that a dire-fiendish-half-dragon-githyanki isn't really "fantastic" in and of itself: it's just a collection of mechanics grafted to one another. If (1) there's an interesting, involving backstory as to how that monster comes to exist, what it's motivations are, and what its place is in the setting, and (2) the game master doesn't overuse templeted monsters just for the sake of coming up with "something new" in every encounter, then the ability to use templates and character levels to create unique monsters is one of the best features of 3e D&D, IMO.The problem may be that some game masters and quite a few writers and designers use templeted monsters as a means of creating oddball challenges instead of as a tool to add depth to the setting. From what I read in adventures and such, too many of these three or four template monsters of whatever with levels in another two or three classes seem ridiculously contrived solely for the purpose of offering a tactical challenge, rather than as a means of exploring the setting conceits.By way of contrast, in my three-oh game I created a new race, known as "earth elders." I peppered the campaign with rumors about these near-mythical beings, so the players were pretty pumped and a bit intimidated when they finally encountered this secretive, mystical race - and they never knew that the elders were mechanically composed of half-earth elemental dwarf sorcerers. The underlying mechanics were essentially invisible within the fluff. Earth elders were fantastic not because of their mechanics, but because of their place in the setting, as a feature of the game-world.</blockquote>

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