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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 9608614" data-attributes="member: 697">I think that modern D&D is too non-swingy on the DM's side, or at least doesn't make enough use of high variability. Based on my own experiences of the past few years:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players like reliability. They have a thing they can do, and they do it. If a player wants a swingy character, they can opt into that but I think it's unsatisfying as the default.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">DMs are better served by swingy results for creatures that appear in numbers. That puts less pressure on trying to design specific abilities for monsters you encounter in bulk. Swingy results + a big mob, each getting a chance to produce a bad outlier result for the PCs = tension.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Boss and elite style monsters need less swinginess. IME, auto damage and save for half works great for these guys.</li> </ul>As an example, in my Tuesday campaign I ran a psionic boss monsters that emitted an auto damage blast in a 5-foot radius the first time it took damage each turn. The damage was low, like 3 points each time it triggered against a 5th level party, but it added up. It also had psionic ranged attacks that were very accurate and pulled victims - I mean, the PCs - closer to it.Meanwhile, it also spawn psionic slimes that had low accuracy, high damage attacks. The encounter went very well, with the players having to balance ignoring the slimes versus focus firing a creature that was whittling down the paladin and barbarian's hit points.A bad run of luck for the PCs saw the slimes drop two characters, but the paladin pulled off a crit on a smite to end the boss. The last bit of clean up was still tense, as the players had to be mindful of playing defense and keeping the slimes' attacks to a minimum.TL;DR: I think that monsters need to be designed along 4e lines (solo, elite, normal, minion) to make a DM's life easier and to make the best encounters.</blockquote>

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