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<blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 5981313" data-attributes="member: 17106">I suspect a salient difference here is that I typically run infrequent sessions and have more preparation time than I know what to do with, such that I usually have a library of detailed monsters and NPCs without specific plans for them, allowing me to improvise heavily and simply drop whatever monsters I have into the game without needing stats on the fly. Typically, I write several densely packed pages of statblocks per session, and rarely run more than one or two battles. I like making characters. When I run out of characters to make, I start writing new rules subsystems to fill the time.Well, specifically as to dragons, at least some versions of D&amp;D assume that magical ability can come from dragon heritage. And I would say a dragon isn't a dragon unless it can do everything it does unambiguously better than other races can do it, including having a full spellcasting repotoire, as well as a wide range of combat abilities, some of them class-like and some of them monstrous (like tail slap attacks or natural armor).Speaking more broadly, in any campaign world in which the &quot;large and in charge&quot; feat exists, I expect that giants commonly take it, I expect that most celestials have a variety of spells derived from the BoED, and any creature with item slots peruses the MIC for gear. My rule is that if it exists, it exists for everyone, which means I either need to run a core only game or do enough work to incorporate the whole library of rules into the various creatures that populate the world, in the name of believability and balance.Common ground! Let's all criticize 5e together...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ahnehnois, post: 5981313, member: 17106"] I suspect a salient difference here is that I typically run infrequent sessions and have more preparation time than I know what to do with, such that I usually have a library of detailed monsters and NPCs without specific plans for them, allowing me to improvise heavily and simply drop whatever monsters I have into the game without needing stats on the fly. Typically, I write several densely packed pages of statblocks per session, and rarely run more than one or two battles. I like making characters. When I run out of characters to make, I start writing new rules subsystems to fill the time. Well, specifically as to dragons, at least some versions of D&D assume that magical ability can come from dragon heritage. And I would say a dragon isn't a dragon unless it can do everything it does unambiguously better than other races can do it, including having a full spellcasting repotoire, as well as a wide range of combat abilities, some of them class-like and some of them monstrous (like tail slap attacks or natural armor). Speaking more broadly, in any campaign world in which the "large and in charge" feat exists, I expect that giants commonly take it, I expect that most celestials have a variety of spells derived from the BoED, and any creature with item slots peruses the MIC for gear. My rule is that if it exists, it exists for everyone, which means I either need to run a core only game or do enough work to incorporate the whole library of rules into the various creatures that populate the world, in the name of believability and balance. Common ground! Let's all criticize 5e together... [/QUOTE]

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