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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 6975528" data-attributes="member: 12731">You're digging yourself into a hole without even realizing it Flamestrike. The basis for our entire criticism of the 5th Edition Monster Manual is exactly this. The Balor shouldn't need macguffins, it should have the tools right there in the stat block.The dragon shouldn't need to cheat by made-up "networks of spies", it should have the tools right there in the statblock.The difference between you and I is that I understand that you can play the game the way you like to, but you deny me the ability to play the game the way I want to. I don't want to invent "macguffins" when the statblocks previously contained a good measure of tricks and treats that a DM can use right out of the box. I don't want to gloss over the facts: How, exactly, does the Dragon notice the PCs coming? I mean, without the PCs - with far superior Perception abilities - also noticing the Dragon?If a Balor can spot the characters, the characters are likely to have spotted the Balor two rounds earlier. I'm not saying this to brag. I'm not saying this to tell you wrong. I'm saying this as fact of something going wrong in the edition. I want Balors and Dragons to do cool stuff, just like you. I just want the numbers to support it.Don't misunderstand me. I'm completely cool with you shortcircuiting the players abilities and stratagems and just plop down the monsters next to the heroes, time and time again. But where you go wrong is when you stubbornly refuses to accept that for those DMs that do not want to play the game that way, this edition leaves them out in the cold, like 3E never did.I don't want to play the game like a videogame where it doesn't matter what precautions the heroes take, the monsters just emerge from the darkness and enter melee regardless.I myself hate it when my DM says "the swamp creatures rise from the black depths and charge you - roll initiative". How could these creatures get past all the scouts and alarms? How come nobody saw them coming? The rules make it extremely unlikely they would all roll high on their Stealth. There simply is no rules support for the cool exciting battles you lay out for us Flamestrike. And that is our complaint. No matter how often you say you can fix this as a DM (or more obnoxiously, when you insinuate a DM does a poor job for not fixing it) and no matter how much you talk about player INT and WIS, you're simply trying to deflect away discussion from the real complain we're having.The rules simply do not support the kind of encounters we all want it to support.Not when the players expertly use all the spells, features and abilities at their disposal, anyway.In the end, the inescapable impression I'm getting remains one where the designers simply aren't aware enough of the tactics and combinations that veteran players can and do employ. The game and its monsters simply come across as defenseless against well-built heroes run by veteran players mindful of effectiveness and party combat cooperation (once you leave single-digit levels anyhow). It feels like Mariliths are playing in the junior league. And that's simply not good enough for a game in its fifth iteration. I expect more out of WotC than this.In short: the player side of the rules are probably the best ever. The monster side of the rules need a complete overhaul, significantly restoring abilities to high-level monsters to give DMs the tools they need to challenge high-level parties without having to resort to macguffins.</blockquote>

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