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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5195379" data-attributes="member: 2067">Except you don't. Honest. <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=";)" /> Rule 0 that homeboy. Eyeball it. Ad hoc it. Set a DC that "feels right." "What the DM says goes" works just as well in all editions of D&D, heck, in any tabletop RPG! NPC's needn't be built the same as PC's. Rather, you have the capability in the system to build them to a level of detail equal to the PC's, but you don't have to do that for everyone.I mean, I didn't run fights against many NPC's in 3e because that would have involved statting them out, but I don't run fights against many homebrew monsters, period, because that means statting them out, and that's not really my cup.You don't have to do anything. I mean, I guess if you were going to publish Queen Victoria in an official rules supplement or something, sure, they might want more detail than two skill check bonuses, but for your home game, you don't even have to give her skill bonuses. Roll a d20 and call it pass/fail if you want. It's your game. There's no fun police. I mean, that was one of 3e's huge positive developments: you can roll a d20, and, whatever you're doing, high rolls are good, and low rolls are bad, and that d20 roll works for anything you might want to do. Just because the option to use the rules is there doesn't mean you have to use them in all circumstances. I guess this is what some people point to when they say 3e constrained the DM, but this sounds more to me like a DM constraining himself. Who says you gotta give Queen Victoria an attack bonus? Who is looking over your shoulder? Do it well enough to satisfy yourself and your players, and if all you need to do to accomplish that is slap Dip+20 in the margins on a sheet of paper, I don't see where 3e tells you that you MUST SHOW ALL YOUR WORK. Function at the table has always trumped the rules that can be used to get to that point.I didn't use classed monsters in combat for essentially the same reason, but I certainly had a few sessions where the players needed to roll in social challenges, and I never really bothered coming up with the attack bonus of any of the critters they rolled against.I was confident knowing that it was there if I really needed it, though. As an improv-heavy DM, having that backup, knowing the rules are going to support whatever weird turn my group decided to take ("we're going to beat up the queen and take her hostage!"), gave me a load of confidence to DM by the seat of my pants.</blockquote>

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