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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7829047" data-attributes="member: 4937">My issue with a lack of constancy between PCs and NPCs goes back to my experiences as a player in 1e AD&amp;D when only NPCs were allowed to get the good stuff, and PCs could never - no matter how much they aspired or strived - be as cool or powerful as NPCs. In 1e AD&amp;D this was done in part to ensure NPCs could be useful foes for PCs, and in part to keep players focused on treasure acquisition by pillaging dungeons, but I think that this idea that the PC's were always inferior to the NPC's was a big part of what I felt were some of the worst excesses of 2e.In particular, I soured on NPCs and PCs built to different standards when Forgotten Realms became the flagship setting, and it seemed in modules and in setting to be less a showcase for the PC's than a stage upon which grand NPCs with phenomenal power were supposed to be doing the important things while the PCs provided an audience to witness their glory. Thus we got source books like 'Seven Sisters' and perhaps the worst character in the history of D&amp;D fiction - Elminster. By comparison, the super-powered better than any mortal statblock of Ariakas we got for 1e Dragonlance was a small and understandable crime. Likewise, I'm not that offended by attempts in 3e and later to simplify statblocks for NPCs, provided those simplified stat blocks don't leave the players wishing that they could be as cool as an NPC.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7829047, member: 4937"] My issue with a lack of constancy between PCs and NPCs goes back to my experiences as a player in 1e AD&D when only NPCs were allowed to get the good stuff, and PCs could never - no matter how much they aspired or strived - be as cool or powerful as NPCs. In 1e AD&D this was done in part to ensure NPCs could be useful foes for PCs, and in part to keep players focused on treasure acquisition by pillaging dungeons, but I think that this idea that the PC's were always inferior to the NPC's was a big part of what I felt were some of the worst excesses of 2e. In particular, I soured on NPCs and PCs built to different standards when Forgotten Realms became the flagship setting, and it seemed in modules and in setting to be less a showcase for the PC's than a stage upon which grand NPCs with phenomenal power were supposed to be doing the important things while the PCs provided an audience to witness their glory. Thus we got source books like 'Seven Sisters' and perhaps the worst character in the history of D&D fiction - Elminster. By comparison, the super-powered better than any mortal statblock of Ariakas we got for 1e Dragonlance was a small and understandable crime. Likewise, I'm not that offended by attempts in 3e and later to simplify statblocks for NPCs, provided those simplified stat blocks don't leave the players wishing that they could be as cool as an NPC. [/QUOTE]

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