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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6360626" data-attributes="member: 42582">There is a degree of tension in your post, I think. After all, one person's "blatant unrealisticness" is another person's "shorthand to create an exciting and engaging game". If you want the ingame rationale - the flame at the edge of the fireball is cool enough that it is not going to hurt anyone; hence we don't bother keeping track of it for combat resolution purposes.This was answered by  [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION], but I want to state my agreement with him: a rule that says that, as the number of PCs in play drops, so the fury of the NPC/monster drops, is a rule for pacing the action, and managing climaxes and denouement within the context of a combat encounter. You may not like such mechanics, but they're hardly revolutionary in RPG design. Legendary actions are one version of such mechanics, designed to fit within D&D's combat turn structure.What are you talking about? As the sphinx defeats its foes, it first stops casting spells against them (3 actions required), then stops teleporting (2 actions required). So we reach a climax, of the sphinx facing off against its final foe, claw vs [whatever].That's a pacing mechanic that is apt to push the story in a definite direction. You might think it's a poor story - in which case you'll want to rewrite or not use the sphinx - but that doesn't change the fact that it advances a particular story.That might be true at your table. At my table the sphinx can teleport to its heart's content when it is alone. The reason for putting the teleportation ability into the legendary actions is to give the GM advice on what is the best way to implement Sphinxish teleportation in the context of a fight between the sphinx and PCs adjudicated within the turn-by-turn, round-by-round combat resolution system.Because it took time to muster its magical energies? Because teleporting is hard, so it tried to move out naturally at first, but then when it found itself unable to, and starting to burn, it teleported instead?Use your imagination!Now this the best post of the thread, and may well feed into my 4e campaign, which is at about the right level for the tarrasque! (But sorry, the XP well is dry at present.)</blockquote>

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