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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6202914" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't disagree at all.  [MENTION=6681948]N'raac[/MENTION] seems not to appreciate that in 4e monsters are built on a DC-by-level chart just as much as social encounters are. He also seems to be assuming that is inherent to the game as such that a given challenge has a given level, whereas a key conceit of 4e's design is that there is flexibility in associating a given mechanical level of challenge with a given ingame "difficulty" or thematic/cosmological/dramatic heft.Default 4e would place the Chamberlain encounter somewhere in the Heroic tier, because by Paragon kings and princes will hobnob with the PCs directly.The Neverwinter Campaign Setting powers up the fiction relative to the mechanics, so that mechanically (upper) Heroic PCs are, in terms of the default 4e approach, engaging in Paragon-tier events within the fiction. As I noted upthread, the point of this is to allow a greater story scope in fewere levels of play. A concrete example can be seen in Aboleth stats: the default Aboleth dominator in the MM is a 17th level elite controller; whereas the Neverwinter book has a 7th level controller Aboleth dominator. You wouldn't use both these creatures in the same campaign: the point of the Neverwinter one is to power up the fiction relative to the mechanics in the way I've described.This is an actual example that illustrates the hypothetical possibility the two of us mentioned earlier, of working up a less-than-30th level monster to play the fictional role of Ancient Red Dragon to use in a campaign where (for whatever reason) the group wants to play at a mechanically lower level but with fictionally higher-powered themes.Contrasting both with default 4e and Neverwinter, the Dark Sun Campaign Setting powers down the fiction relative to the mechanics, so that mechanically Epic PCs are finally ready to confront the Sorcerer-Kings. Whereas in default 4e PCs of that level are ready to confront the lords of Hell and the Abyss.</blockquote>

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