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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 9554480" data-attributes="member: 6779196">That’s a very good observation! I think that in reality, you’re never going to get monsters 100% identifiable from their stats and abilities alone, but I think it’s a worthwhile ideal to pursue, and the closer a design gets to success at that goal, the harder it would be to reskin that design without it being obvious that the reskin is not what those stats were designed to represent. Personally, I consider that a worthwhile tradeoff, but YMMV.I don’t think they really need addressing. If a stat block is so clearly identifiable as the creature it’s supposed to represent that I can’t make any modifications to it without it no longer feeling like the same monster, why would I want to make modifications to it? Usually when I modify a monster, it’s to make it more easily identifiable through its abilities alone. Meanwhile if I want a creature that no existing stat blocks represent, I can homebrew a stat block for it, either from scratch, or starting with a stat block that already does similar things. Going with your “flame tank” example, if a red dragon’s stat block already does lots of flame-y things and can take lots of hits, I can keep those aspects and get rid of the aspects that are clearly un-tank-like, such as flight, and maybe replace them with some recognizably tank-like things, like a slow, heavy-hitting, long ranged attack with a small AoE. As long as the homebrewer keeps this same guiding principle in mind, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to make their own monsters that are also identifiable as themselves.</blockquote>

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