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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ipissimus" data-source="post: 3352145" data-attributes="member: 41514">Who said the old monsters are broken? I love my Beholders and my Githyanki and the Flumph and the Glabrezu and the... well, you get the idea. But if all the monsters that the players face are always the same then the game that is, strictly speaking, more like gambling then the game begins to lose variety several moments before it becomes boring.My players may gain the knowledge of the crystal bird, but they might not be prepared for it. Something new is both a challenge and a novelty, and the players will feel like they've seen something new, that they are actually explorers in an alien wilderness.Which is also why I love the Tome of Horrors and other such products, the more the merrier and the harder the better... but I would like to reiterate that my original question was about more than just monster creation.So, a new question: Have you ever had an adventure idea reflexively slapped down?I have on numerous occasions, particularly on the WOTC boards, and I find it quite depressing that otherwise good ideas are so shunned. My favourite incident in this category was an idea that I had for a BOVD style mature game that involved an antagonist hunting down the PC's old aquaintances in order to create a flesh golem that would wreak revenge upong them... not totally original but something to consider. The point of objection was about the hook that I suggested for the adventure, that of the party being called back to 'talk' with an old aquaintance who had had several body parts removed, including the hands and tongue, and was left basically paralyzed.My detractor pointed out that, paralyzed, the victim couldn't actally speak with the adventurers. Several others and myself pointed out that there are such spells as Detect Thoughts and outright Telepathy, which he rebutted impolitely with the argument that 'no PC ever takes those spells'. Even efter I suggested alternate methods of communication, he continued to persist until I simply had to ignore him. This conversation killed the entire thread, which I found a great shame considering that there were some darn good ideas there. This isn't the one time this has happened to me or someone I know, so I'm certainly seeing a pattern emerge.shilsen: I wouldn't call it a major problem, I'd call it being competitive. My players use SWAT-style shock tactics and consider any combat in which they recieve damage as a failure. A death in the party really does shock them, which still happens despite their caution. They use divination spells extensively along with the maxed-out knowledge skills to gain tactical advantage. In this tactic, they are helped in the fact that all four PCs are spellcasters: A Wizard/Archmage, A Cleric/Radient Servant of Pelor, a Fighter/Wizard/Eldrich Knight/Anjurant Champion and a Rogue/Wizard/Arcane Trickster.So, no, none of them are Orc-wielding Barbarians and most of them have an Int somewhere in the stratosphere and failing knowledge checks not something they worry about. So, I can't actually say categorically what they'd do if they failed a knowledge check because they never have...My players love their characters are they love the game, I get regular positive feedback, so I am certainly unwilling to change anything. What they are doing is playing smart, which is what makes me more satisfied when I manage to catch them on the off-foot. The last thing I want to do is punish them for playing well, in fact I know all I'd be doing is making them angry.</blockquote>

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