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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 3932534" data-attributes="member: 5143">However, NPCs in 4e are not designed the same way as players.  They aren't based on the same rules.  The Royal Knower of Cheeses might have +40 to his skill simply because the DM wanted him to.And because rolls like these are comparative as you've noted it means you can tailor your NPCs to the group you are running it for.  You figure that you want the Cheese Knower to be only slightly better than the PCs you can easily set it as that.  If you want him to be WAY better, you can as well.It is also what fixes a lot of problems with damage and ACs scaling strangely at high levels compared to the PCs.  If a 20th level monster is designed knowing that ALL players have a +10 BAB at 20th level and an average stat of 20 in their prime stat they know that it should have an AC of around 26 if they want the wizard to have a 50/50 chance of hitting.  This won't make the monster hit on a 1 by the fighter, however, since the difference is only 3 or 4 points.  Since damage is about the same for most of the classes, you can set the monsters hitpoints to say: 5 rounds of survival for one PC hitting it every round.You aren't restricted to arbitrary rules on what the AC, saves, hitpoints or skills of the monster needs to be based on hitdice if there isn't any.</blockquote>