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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goobermunch" data-source="post: 4117828" data-attributes="member: 10516">Klaus,I think the importance of this distinction is that in 3.5e, the design paradigm was to create a universal set of rules that applied to all entities.  While you are absolutely correct that you can get to the same location, the process of getting there involves either the limits of the design paradigm or invocation of Rule 0, which, while technically within the rules, subverts the design paradigm.On the other hand, under 4e, the design paradigm gives the DM license to do what he needs to do to run the game.  4e is about tools, not rules.  As a result, the DM doesn't need to analyze whether the NPCs level, stats, skill ranks, feats, and equipment are perfectly harmonized to reach the desired result.  He can just determine the desired story element and implement it to the extent necessary.Now some folks will say that NPCs generated in this manner are little more than Potemkin villages.  And I suppose there is some validity to that argument.  But at the same time, does every NPC bartender need a full character sheet and detailed life story?  If the game develops in such a way that Healer: heal +12 becomes relevant to the PCs, the DM may need to do a bit more work.  But the work doesn't need to be done until the PCs decide that Healer: heal +12 needs a name (invented on the spot), and some backstory (sketched in during the session and developed the day after).  In this way, plot device Healer: heal +12 can evolve into an NPC that needs a full character sheet and back story.--G</blockquote>

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