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Issues with the "NPCs" in the MM and HotDQ (SPOILERS!)
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<blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 6403884" data-attributes="member: 1757"><p>[MENTION=6781944]Athinar[/MENTION]: Charming.</p><p></p><p>Sorry, but NPCs and monsters needing to be built according to exactly the same procedure as PCs use does not for great gameplay make. More to your point, if I need to switch an NPC from monster-style (or, to use 4e terminology, "companion character-style") stats to PC-style stats, it's easy to do and doesn't impact verisimilitude. I have in fact DONE this quite often in 4e play; I made each player create a companion-character stat block of his or her PC and used those to run the characters when the PCs weren't available. Guess what: It didn't negatively impact quality of gameplay AT ALL.</p><p></p><p>3e is the only edition that has supported a full player-level build approach for NPCs and monsters (tell me about the way in which a vampire M-U7-12 or a human berserker from the 1e MM work using player-oriented rules, for instance), and I left it specifically because of the resulting mess. The idea that you need to avoid abstraction that moves the game along specifically in favor of "everything being exactly the same when the DM runs the NPC as a monster vs. the odd instance in which the PC runs the NPC as a PC-style character" is one that doesn't carry enough weight for me, at least, to warrant a significantly more bloated average stat block and ruleset and a mess when it comes to balancing encounters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ruleslawyer, post: 6403884, member: 1757"] [MENTION=6781944]Athinar[/MENTION]: Charming. Sorry, but NPCs and monsters needing to be built according to exactly the same procedure as PCs use does not for great gameplay make. More to your point, if I need to switch an NPC from monster-style (or, to use 4e terminology, "companion character-style") stats to PC-style stats, it's easy to do and doesn't impact verisimilitude. I have in fact DONE this quite often in 4e play; I made each player create a companion-character stat block of his or her PC and used those to run the characters when the PCs weren't available. Guess what: It didn't negatively impact quality of gameplay AT ALL. 3e is the only edition that has supported a full player-level build approach for NPCs and monsters (tell me about the way in which a vampire M-U7-12 or a human berserker from the 1e MM work using player-oriented rules, for instance), and I left it specifically because of the resulting mess. The idea that you need to avoid abstraction that moves the game along specifically in favor of "everything being exactly the same when the DM runs the NPC as a monster vs. the odd instance in which the PC runs the NPC as a PC-style character" is one that doesn't carry enough weight for me, at least, to warrant a significantly more bloated average stat block and ruleset and a mess when it comes to balancing encounters. [/QUOTE]
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Issues with the "NPCs" in the MM and HotDQ (SPOILERS!)
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