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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7144799" data-attributes="member: 20323">Short Answer: Don't be an opaque DM. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Longer Answer: In my descriptions as DM, I usually (for players new to D&D) want to evoke a clear sense of the challenge a monster or NPC represents. Say a 1st-2nd level party hears about a bulette (CR 5 – very dangerous for them). I don't need to refer to game rules to do evoke how challenging it is... "The armor plates on the back of the rhinoceros-sized creature the halfling villagers called a land-shark look as sturdy as splint armor, and the way it moves, padding the earth with wide toes, suggests its listening to your movements through the earth. Powerful hindquarters support a mouth the size of a dragon's. It fearlessly sniffs in your direction and aggressively lowers its head."I've communicated AC, tremorsense, and a high-damage bite. I've also alluded to it not being intimidated by a party of armed characters. Now it's up to the players to decide what to do.Btw, some monsters hit above their weight class. The final CR of a monster that appears in the MM is based on an average of a defensive CR and offensive CR. At 1st and 2nd level, certain monsters pose a very dangerous threat to fragile PCs, and the ogre is one of those.</blockquote>

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