D&D 4E I may have had a 4e epiphany...

[Rechan]

One of us!

One of us!

Gooble gobble.

 

[small pumpkin man]

WotC undoubtedly has those ranges, but I doubt they'll be providing anything like that to their readers in as many words.

Otherwise, why buy MM books at all?

Because the important part is choosing/making up background, powers, rituals and skills. And even people who are interested in doing that will want good examples to start from, or use out of the box.

 

[Jack99]

Did a snowball survive in hell?



Welcome to the dark side muhahahahaa

 

[Plane Sailing]

Also, all of this has been all but said in the many months leading up to 4E. I imagine you are just a bit slow?

I'm glad that Lizard didn't rise to the bait, but I'm not so please to see you making this kind of comment in the first place. You know the rules - no insulting of other people.

If you want to continue posting in this thread I think a sorry might be in order here.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

What is wrong with you people? You make perhaps the most egregious error one can possibly make in rhetoric. You start with the axiom, "I am right," a priori to any discussion. May I humbly suggest that starting with the axiom, "I might not be right," may be more proper?

The fact that Lizard did not raise to the bait thrown at him further enhances his standing, and lowers yours.

Well put! I agree with everything you've said (except for your incorrect usage of the term a priori ).

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'm pretty sure that WotC has said explicitly that you will have this information.

Having read your Story Hour, I bet your players are more than a little worried about what your imagination might come up with with even more flexible monster creation rules!

 

[lutecius]

SELLOUT!
You're a disgrace to decent h4ters everywhere.

 

[vagabundo]

3e is wired hard into your neuron structure. It will take years for the effect to wear off.

On my side of the fence the numbers are telling.

Monster created/converted/tweaked in the past eight years of gaming once a week:

3e=0
4e=5

I'd search high and low to avoid creating a 3e monster. I've created a few NPCs for 3e, but similarly I'd use pregened stuff if I could.

In 4e it is almost a pleasure, I started my own POL setting and started creating and converting monsters for it, Joy!!

 

[Ten]

This epiphany is dangerous. Just think, how can WotC ever sell us another book?

"Here is the Monster Manual 2! It has metallic dragons!"
"Uh...you already gave us metallic dragons."
"No...we...didn't?"
"Yes you did *points to 6 different monsters in the monster manual, a chart of statistics by level and roles and a piece of scrap paper with a cool move*"
"...Well it also has..."
"No, you see, you gave us every single monster. Ever."

 

[Jer]

4e is a point-based system like GURPS or Hero...without the points. At least as far as NPCs are concerned.
...
Once it hit me that, basically, every monster/NPC in 4e is effectively built from scratch, not according to a structured system (other than role/level guidelines), my perspective changed dramatically.

Heh. I wouldn't have phrased it that way but I think your observation is pretty accurate. I've been thinking of it more like "the way we made monsters before 3e, but with actual guidelines and structure instead of just eyeballing it," but your observation is probably a better way of putting it

I came around to 4e pretty quickly just based on listening to Mearls on the podcasts talking about encounter and monster design. I've been leery of the PC side of things (though Keep on the Shadowfell has me less worried about that side of things at the moment ), but the DM side of things may be enough for me to lay it out for my group and convince them to switch. I'm hoping that this method of building monsters combined with the new design philosophy for the Monster Manual (small stat blocks, keep in on one page, etc.) all makes it easier to run "on the fly" encounters in D&D again - they way I do when I run Basic/Expert D&D. That's something I've missed in 3e. I know that they really wanted to give us a toolbox when they laid out 3e and it's great (I'll gladly play/run 3e in the future, unlike the previous versions of AD&D), but sometimes I really need a prefabricated shed more than I need a fully stocked toolbox and a pile of wood...