D&D 5E Let’s Read Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.

[Parmandur]

I never said they shouldn't do it. I said they should be clear in the books that they are doing it, because not every player is new to the game or unwilling to/disinterested in playing a deeper game.

I mean, again, based on the Beyond data and what WotC designers have said about their own data, apparently most are disinterestedor it doesn'teven occur to them. And that ia the target audience for the game.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I mean, again, based on the Beyond data and what WotC designers have said about their own data, apparently most are disinterestedor it doesn'teven occur to them. And that ia the target audience for the game.

That implies that they should cater to the majority and ignore the rest of their client base. Being clear about their intentions would at least throw a bone to their existing fans.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

That implies that they should cater to the majority and ignore the rest of their client base. Being clear about their intentions would at least throw a bone to their existing fans.

The majority is what should be cared about for a game.

I won't mind some deeper stuff, but it's best for some things to be simplified.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The majority is what should be cared about for a game.

I won't mind some deeper stuff, but it's best for some things to be simplified.

Again, I'm asking for transparency here, not for them to have taken different actions. I get it.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Again, I'm asking for transparency here, not for them to have taken different actions. I get it.

They have been pretty clear.

 

[Parmandur]

That implies that they should cater to the majority and ignore the rest of their client base. Being clear about their intentions would at least throw a bone to their existing fans.

They don't ignore anybody, but assuming a common baseline and communicating thet is just smart.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They don't ignore anybody, but assuming a common baseline and communicating thet is just smart.

Yes, communicating that in your product is just smart.

 

[Parmandur]

Yes, communicating that in your product is just smart.

If they need to: those who optimize and such will figure it out, others can just play the game.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I expect that they figured that most people who optimize will want to be more powerful than the game expects. If they balanced the game for optimization, they'd be working against that idea. They'd also be leaving the rest of the players (most of them) to feel like they suck. Seems like a lose-lose.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

base 16 +1 from evasion = 17)

Eh? Evasion doesn't affect AC, and is largely irrelevant when fighting quicklings, since reasonably competent players aren't going to use DEX save spells against them.

Although I did stat up some giant cockroaches for a level 2 dungeon once, and gave them really good CON saves as a joke, playing into the trope of "can survive a nuclear war". And it turned out the party arcane caster was a storm sorcerer with largely CON save spells!

But it's clear that WotC treat CR as a rough estimate of a monster's relative strength, so they don't care if it's a bit off. The problem, as we can see from this forum, is some players treat xp budgets and encounters per day as hard rules not to be broken under any circumstances. The core rules need to make it clearer that CR is only a rough guide and no substitute for common sense.

The guideline doesn't ask you how many daggers, though technically they only need 1

By RAW, it is assumed that they can make an unlimited number of ranged attacks, which allows for the hit and run tactic that @Sulicius is concerned about. Limiting them to one dagger forces them into melee range and therefore neutralises their superior mobility. Limiting their ammo would be a sensible move for a DM worried that the encounter might be too difficult.

Now, you could put a note to that effect in a monster book, but you would quickly get to the state were your monster manual looked like a biblical commentary "the gelatinous cube should be used in enclosed spaces where players cannot evade it with superior mobility", with more notes than it has stat blocks and lore. So your book is twice as thick, or in the real world, has half as many monsters. And that's for information that is only relevant to new DMs. There may be a case for releasing an "Annotated Monster Manual" but it's not a product everyone would want forced on them.