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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7747185" data-attributes="member: 6775031">I haven't played 3.5 in over ten years, but I could still run you through a combat against some goblins or orcs right now, without any preparation. I can literally write down all of the relevant stats and abilities from memory, while you're rolling initiative, because it's all derived naturally from ability scores and class levels.There's no way that I could run you through a similar encounter in 4E, unless I actually brought the book out and looked up their abilities. There's no way for me to guess what any of their powers were, because they were all unique to those specific monsters.That's the same feeling I get from this stat block. It's not just simple, universal mechanics. It's not even a base level of simple mechanics, with one weird thing to make the monster unique, like regeneration or constriction. It's all new stuff, for every monster.You can't deny someone else's lived experience. I was there. It was difficult to transition between playing 4E and running 4E, because all of the monsters had all new abilities that I had to learn from scratch. It was like learning my character all over again, for every fight; sometimes multiple times in one fight, because they encouraged you to use mixed groups of monsters.Fourth Edition had a lot going for it. I'm a big fan of the precise language and AEDU. I'm a huge fan of the multi-classing rules. The unique monster rules were, by a wide margin, the weakest part of the system.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7747185, member: 6775031"] I haven't played 3.5 in over ten years, but I could still run you through a combat against some goblins or orcs right now, without any preparation. I can literally write down all of the relevant stats and abilities from memory, [I]while[/I] you're rolling initiative, because it's all derived naturally from ability scores and class levels. There's no way that I could run you through a similar encounter in 4E, unless I actually brought the book out and looked up their abilities. There's no way for me to guess what any of their powers were, because they were all unique to those specific monsters. That's the same feeling I get from this stat block. It's not just simple, universal mechanics. It's not even a base level of simple mechanics, with one weird thing to make the monster unique, like regeneration or constriction. It's all new stuff, for every monster. You can't deny someone else's lived experience. I was there. It was difficult to transition between playing 4E and running 4E, because all of the monsters had all new abilities that I had to learn from scratch. It was like learning my character all over again, for every fight; sometimes multiple times in one fight, because they encouraged you to use mixed groups of monsters. Fourth Edition had a lot going for it. I'm a big fan of the precise language and AEDU. I'm a [I]huge[/I] fan of the multi-classing rules. The unique monster rules were, by a wide margin, the weakest part of the system. [/QUOTE]

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