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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 9785595" data-attributes="member: 93670">Yes it's easy enough to simply add stuff to monsters like that but templates gave newer GMs the feeling of the system having their back with a safety net when it came to mucking with stat blocks or hearing  & moving past "wait what!? [Base monster] doesn't normally have the ability to do [thing]" so the session could continue on with the other players jumping to support the gm simply using the rules when there are so so many templates just among those known to them rather than the other players avoiding the whole thing or agreeing where the statblock rnded.  That's quite a bit different from what (IME) happens when a player makes that sort of comment on monster observations.I don't think that <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="👆" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f446.png" title="Backhand index pointing up    :point_up_2:" data-shortname=":point_up_2:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />"omg ze statblock AKSHually SEZ" gm footing erosion & pointless session diverting dilemma that templates shielded from is a me thing though and recent posts commenting on the idea of giving hypothetical goblins various ranged weapons nicely demonstrates the fact that fielding customized monsters absent credible gm support from the system can play out in ways that feed into an erosion of gm trust often enough to proactively discuss the road leading there.I dunno, low teens wasn't too unusual for my groups back in the day.  More importantly is that players were already in the habit of treating whatever town/region they called home base as an important place where all their valuable stuff was stored and useful npc contacts with built up very much lived in ways impacted by the world.  Putting one or more of the <a href="https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/3.5e_Creature_Templates" target="_blank">many useful templates</a> on almost useful monsters & thematically lacking monsters kept the stakes local to the general area the players knew their PCs depended on.  Even beyond monster templates 5e also ditched the many <a href="https://dndtools.net/feats/categories/monster/?page=4" target="_blank">many many monster feats</a>  that often allowed a small but incredibly impactful twist to a skilled or otherwise unique monster with a once more effortless but impactful +1-2 bab and +1-2 feats plus some other stuff from adding or two of fighter levels</blockquote>

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