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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FourthBear" data-source="post: 4027344" data-attributes="member: 55846">I believe that the Pit Fiend's stat block is intended as a baseline for DMs using it straight out of the book.  You will note that it does have other abilities, as they note that every 99 years, they can grant a wish to a mortal.  From the sounds of ritual magics and monster customization, there will be plenty of ways to have *specific* Pit Fiends with powers for non-combat applications and to give Pit Fiends more tricks.  Frankly, I've never liked the lists of spell-like abilities that previous editions gave so many monsters.  They always seemed like the lazy way of design.  I don't think the baseline Pit Fiend write-up should be considered a limitation of individual Pit Fiends any more than the baseline Orc writeup should be considered the be-all and end-all of Orc villains.As to spellcaster power, this is also a change that I think will be positive.  It is definitely also one that I anticipate is going to piss off a lot of spellcaster fans.  However, previous editions only had balance between classes in one specific set of scenarios: a set of tightly timed, sequential combat heavy encounters, where the spellcasters must conserve their magic spells and dedicate a sizable portion of them to combat options.  Out of combat or in campaigns where the pacing of encounters is such that they can release a greater fraction of their powers and make greater use of the nearly unlimited scope of magic?  So I anticipate that magic using characters *will* be able to take spells that will have the same scope of previous editions.  But they will now have to make actual *choices*, rather than simply waiting around to fill up their spellbooks with all of the spells they desire.  If they want the best necromancy spells, they will have to actually devote character resources to necromancy, instead of just running up to the spell buffet.  If the rogues and fighters managed to be playable while having to make real choices in their class related ability selections that limited them, I think that wizards and clerics will be able to muddle through somehow.</blockquote>

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