Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 4175079" data-attributes="member: 5143">The difference is, that as a DM, I will use weakened, insubstantial, marked, push, pull, shift, immobilized, stunned, dazed, and a couple of others on a regular basis.  PCs will have abilities that do those things to monster, monsters will have abilities that do them to PCs.  I will get to know them quick.On the other hand, I've read through the book a couple of times now and I don't think I could tell you what the level 15 fighter powers do.  And certainly not what all the 1st through 15th fighter powers do.  And absolutely not what the 1st-30th fighter powers do.  And I definitely couldn't remember the 1st-30th level powers of all 8 classes.Which is fine...if you want to run the duplicate poorly.  It probably would have even worked well in 3rd when monster actions were pretty much always "stand in one spot and full attack".However, when a copy of a PC has 20 encounter abilities and 2 at will powers, plus possibly 8 magic items which give encounter abilities it becomes very difficult to keep track of it all.  Especially when that PC is designed to have his powers work together in a building manner that requires proficiency in using them to do it properly.Is it better to use the power that shifts 2, attacks once, then shifts 2 and attacks again this round or the one that does 3[W] damage and and then pushes the enemy and stuns them for a round?  What about the creature's swift action?  Does the PC have any of those?  What about move actions?  Any immediate actions?  Do any of them trigger when the PC gets hit?  How about when the PC hits an enemy?  What about when the PC is missed?Are you going to ask the player to see his sheet each time someone attacks the duplicate to check for triggers?  Then reread the 20 powers each round to see which one is the best?Frankly, I'm glad most monsters have 5 powers at MOST.  It's not too difficult keeping track of that many powers when you are playing only one character and it's all you play every session for a long time.  You get to know all of their powers and which ones are best and can act quickly.If I'm running 5 monsters, each one should have no more than 1 trigger each, no more than 3 attacks, no more than 1 defense and no more than 1 utility power.  If I can look at a monster and say "It's shtick is to teleport with its move action then double attack with its standard and then give a boost to its AC with its swift" then it can be run fast.I've had to look up the crit value of a dagger before when I just couldn't remember.  I've had to look up the rules for a charge before when something specific about it just wouldn't come to mind and especially when I was first beginning to run the game.But that's exactly the point.  The LESS I have to do this, the faster the game goes.  I can tell you that an average 15th level character will have about 2-3 pages worth of text on their powers alone, plus at least another sheet for their defenses, stats, hitpoints and the like, and another full page or 2 on their equipment.  I haven't yet stated out a 30th level one, but I can imagine another page or 2 of information.If you can't imagine how scanning through 6 pages of information on what actions you can take this round might be a lot slower than scanning through the average quarter page stat block of monsters, then I don't know what to say.  Especially when "the most damaging attack" is likely a tie between 5 different attacks.  Meanwhile, the Phane itself only has 3 attacks total(and one is melee, one is ranged, and one is AOE, so they almost choose themselves).  Much more manageable, I'd say.A step 4?  Not sure what you mean.Either way, the numbers of PCs sheets and monster's stat blocks are quite a bit different.  You wouldn't really want to take a PC and just turn them into a monster.The idea is to make it so the DM can come up with a decision on what to do for each monster in about 30 seconds.  Therefore, when he runs 5 monsters, his total turn takes about 2 minutes, 30 seconds.  Which is sometimes about what it takes for most players I know to come up with what they are going to do on their turn, because they have so many options to consider and they need to assess the situation tactically, planning which square to move to to get flanking, and so on.If you give the DM that many options for one of the many monsters in a combat, it will just slow down the combat as he now takes 2 minutes to figure out each monster instead of 30 seconds.As for the other abilities the phane is losing, I can't speak on those exactly since I never ran one in 3e.  I can tell you that levels in 4e are about estimating combat power, not non-combat influence or power.  Its no more likely that some epic level creature could destroy the world than a 1st level monster.  The main difference tends to be in the amount of damage they dish out and their defenses.I can't speak directly about the rules, but I fully expect that when I'm level 30 in 4e, I will still be walking to dungeons, using a torch to see, feeling walls for secret doors, afraid to fall into lava, and so on.The main difference will be my ability to kick some serious butt with my attacks and take a boat load of damage and survive.  The monsters of 4e are no different.</blockquote>

Verification