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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dualazi" data-source="post: 6985478" data-attributes="member: 6855537">The problem with this line of thinking is that not every DM wants to meticulously comb over every monster to create unique abilities, and also the difficulty of creating balanced options on the fly. Furthermore, monsters are explicitly discouraged from improvising with the rules as written, as I said earlier in the thread, on account of them having to sacrifice their entire action to trip/rush/grapple.Secondly, the “skills and RP” solution is a cop-out, and always will be. Same thing was said in any number of fighter vs. caster debates, and it’s just as useless here. Also, if you do happen to think “skills and RP” is the proper option, then you must then acknowledge that that would be just as applicable for the allegedly inflexible 4e monsters. No one forced you to use their written abilities if you’d rather house-rule them.Or they’re a (group) of PCs who understand basic strategy against an opponent with no significant resistances, no abilities, and a mediocre move speed.I don’t believe anyone made the claim all monsters need super flashy powers, but there’s a definite disparity here on the other side of the spectrum. Giants in particular are bad about this, with only the cloud and storm giants even getting spellcasting (mostly non-combat or utility) and only the storm giant alone with a unique non-spell ability. Pretty much all non-caster humanoids join this camp as well, save a few of the pseudo leaders able to give a few extra attacks here and there, like gnoll leaders.I also feel it’s worth noting that “powerz” aren’t the only way of making a monster interesting. Things like auras are very simple to run, and the 4e ability of demons to shift their resistance adaptively offers a lot more thought for both sides than simply slapping every kind of resist on them like most high-end ones seem to. Flavor text is always ignorable. There’s absolutely no guarantee it’ll fit into the world your running and/or circumstances that lead to exceptions to the rule. You’re no more bound to have ogres with minions than you are to have goblins worship the listed deity in x-y-z MM or source book. Even so, let’s say that’s the case; as I said earlier, most of those humanoids will be generic auto-attackers as well (assuming they’re from the usual cast of orcs/goblins/bugbears etc.). In the end, it’s not about whether or not the group is dangerous, but if they have interesting ways of affecting the battle/players that need to be accounted for. As it stands, there’s no functional difference between an ogre or a hill giant, one is just a bigger sack of HP than the other.</blockquote>

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