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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7747436" data-attributes="member: 6775031">Weird. I never would have imagined. YMMV, I guess.If you go way, way back up-thread, this whole tangent started when I said that it felt like I needed to learn the monsters from scratch, every time I ran an encounter in 4E; because every monster had its own complicated abilities, and there's no way to predict what any of those abilities would be without reading the stat block. If you tell me that a redcap wears spiked boots, then it doesn't automatically follow that it would be able to move half of its speed and make a stomp attack as one action, which deals bleed damage only if the target is prone. I can figure out how to use it, and work out some sort of tactics for running the monster that would make use of it, but it's going to require some effort. If I need to do that for ten new monsters every session, then that's a significant burden to running the game.If you tell me that a winter wolf has a breath weapon, then I know what that means. Even if I didn't know the damage or the save DC off the top of my head, I already know what a breath weapon is and how it works and how to use it. Likewise, if something has a spell-like ability, then I already know what that is and how to use it. I don't need to learn the monster from scratch in order to run it effectively. It's very user-friendly in that way.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7747436, member: 6775031"] Weird. I never would have imagined. YMMV, I guess. If you go way, way back up-thread, this whole tangent started when I said that it felt like I needed to learn the monsters from scratch, every time I ran an encounter in 4E; because every monster had its own complicated abilities, and there's no way to predict what any of those abilities would be without reading the stat block. If you tell me that a redcap wears spiked boots, then it doesn't automatically follow that it would be able to move half of its speed and make a stomp attack as one action, which deals bleed damage [I]only[/I] if the target is prone. I can figure out how to use it, and work out some sort of tactics for running the monster that would make use of it, but it's going to require some effort. If I need to do that for ten new monsters every session, then that's a significant burden to running the game. If you tell me that a winter wolf has a breath weapon, then I know what that means. Even if I didn't know the damage or the save DC off the top of my head, I already know what a breath weapon is and how it works and how to use it. Likewise, if something has a spell-like ability, then I already know what that is and how to use it. I don't need to learn the monster from scratch in order to run it effectively. It's very user-friendly in that way. [/QUOTE]

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