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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5184135" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't agree. Non-combat encounter resolution in 4e turns on the skil challenge rules, which don't require anything in monster statblocks (because in a skill challenge the monsters and NPCs do not do anything mechanically, only narratively - the mechanics are all in the players' hands).In 4e as written (perhaps not as played at all tables) this sort of bargaining is a skill challenge. Therefore, it doesn't depend on monster stats but rather on the GM's assignment of level-appropriate DCs.As written, the WotC modules don't make these sorts of skill challenges easy to run, but it's not due to a lack of monster stats but due to a lack of contex/motivation given to the monsters. And also due to some of the problems with the skill challenge rules themselves.I agree, this is a big problem with WotC adventures. The solution is not more stats in the statblock. It's better adventure design, and (within the 4e paradigm) better development and then deployment of the skill challenge rules.I don't like the 4e modules very much as written (though they have some interesting maps and set pieces) but it has nothing to do with the 4e designers pragmatic approach to statblocks. It's because the modules are poor adventures. Bastion of Broken Souls, a high level 3E adventure by WotC, has super-long statblocks but exactly the same problems with its adventure design.At least in my copy of the 4e monster manuals there's quite a bit in each monster description about general lifestyle, motivations, religious affiliations (where appropriate) and so on. There's also the Origin stat and a range of types and subtypes, which helps make sense of some of this. The MM and MM2 are actually much better than the modules in this respect, and when the sort of situation ExploderWizard describes comes up in a module encounter, I tend to turn to the relevant monster manual for guidance.I also use Manual of the Planes, Open Grave, Underdark and The Plane Above to help with this (if I used a lot of dragons or elementals I guess I'd buy and use those books to).</blockquote>

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