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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wyrmshadows" data-source="post: 4445173" data-attributes="member: 56166">Though as I posted earlier I am a fan of VP/WP dynamics because they are IMO much more believable than HP and allow for increased rapidity of healing and more dangerous combats. One cannot play D&D and expect hard simulationist realism...true. I don't want that either but like you wrote, I want consistance that goes across the board. As a DM I always have the freedom to describe, in a narrative fashion, anything I want. However, by the same token, throughout the history of D&D there has been a consistancy that assumed that whether it was the great dragon in the northern forests with 697hp or the 9hp orc irregular their hp totals always remain the same no matter who is looking at them. HPs are an abstraction but have never been an abstraction that varies based on the relative power of the observer. This is a huge difference. My players would never allow me to use minions and know about it...not that I would because, though I tried it, I am not a 4e DM. I don't see how after playing D&D for years with fixed, objective realities that suddenly wiping the floor with a dozen ice devil minions could ever feel as badass as actually defeating that many ice devils who actually have objective hit point totals. The fact is, until now, you had better be seriously badass before encountering numbers of powerful creatures. Now, moxie is simulated by making the badguys redshirt mooks designed solely to be cool. Doesn't Exalted have the Rule of Cool? Minions are a rule of cool type construct designed to make people look good. In many years of DMing I have yet to encounted a problem with PCs being unable to look good by whooping up on level appropriate foes. The players knowing who is a minion and who is not is completely a metagame abberation in the same way a player who would actually memorize the stats and abilities of the Monster Manual critters and have their PC act accordingly is a metagame abberation. PCs should be able to see who is less well armored, look less confident perhaps, or have the bearing of unseasoned fighters, but they shouldn't know they are guaranteed a kill.   Wyrmshadows</blockquote>

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