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<blockquote data-quote="Shemeska" data-source="post: 4817163" data-attributes="member: 11697"><p>On some level I can see the rationale behind the 4e idea of 'if it's good you don't fight it, and PCs as heroes don't fight good creatures, and you don't need stats if you don't fight it', I find it too constraining as a default. It's in some ways similar in tone to the things that early 2e was often attacked for: being too goody-goody, except here in 4e it's part of the core assumptions (all PCs are heroes, heroes do this, and nothing outside of this really be supported).</p><p></p><p>I find an absolutely delicious glee as a DM in providing moral quandries, and when appropriate, using good creatures as antagonists. They might be misguided, they might be right and the PCs wrong, and yes even two good aligned people can be fighting with both of them being true to their alignments. </p><p></p><p>And of course, they're free game for use when I have a party of PCs comprised of various flavors of neutral or even evil characters. My current campaign has such upstanding individuals as a NE/CE tiefling worshipper of Shar, a sorceress who's the offspring of a greater yugoloth and a fallen guardinal, a half-drow wizard with a living manifestation of Baator sitting on his shoulder, a rakshasa from a banished noble house in Acheron, a psion with questionable sanity, and to balance them out a NG cleric and his LG fighter cohort. Even evil people can have friends and shared goals.</p><p></p><p>I've usually skewed towards evil enemies in all of my campaigns, but again when appropriate, I've used good creatures just as much. Removing good creatures out of some wierd desire to straightjacket PC concepts and campaign flavor is misguided in my opinion, and rather annoying. Scrubbing the serial numbers from previously good creatures and making them unaligned in 4e isn't a good solution either, because while you still technically have the creature, it's no longer the same outside of the name and superficial appearance perhaps. You still have the thematic restrictions built into the game's precepts, rather than there being a big tent approach to what campaigns can contain.</p><p></p><p>Some folks are going to immediately say that including good monsters and their stats is a waist of space. Fair enough if you only use monsters for PCs to fight. But again that restricts others from using them as antagonists for evil PCs, or even occasionally for neutral or good PCs as well. And I've heavily used good monsters as allies and NPC cohorts in my games, and I think something is lost in that regard by shutting the door on good monsters in 4e material.</p><p></p><p>That's my take on the matter.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Shemeska, post: 4817163, member: 11697"] On some level I can see the rationale behind the 4e idea of 'if it's good you don't fight it, and PCs as heroes don't fight good creatures, and you don't need stats if you don't fight it', I find it too constraining as a default. It's in some ways similar in tone to the things that early 2e was often attacked for: being too goody-goody, except here in 4e it's part of the core assumptions (all PCs are heroes, heroes do this, and nothing outside of this really be supported). I find an absolutely delicious glee as a DM in providing moral quandries, and when appropriate, using good creatures as antagonists. They might be misguided, they might be right and the PCs wrong, and yes even two good aligned people can be fighting with both of them being true to their alignments. And of course, they're free game for use when I have a party of PCs comprised of various flavors of neutral or even evil characters. My current campaign has such upstanding individuals as a NE/CE tiefling worshipper of Shar, a sorceress who's the offspring of a greater yugoloth and a fallen guardinal, a half-drow wizard with a living manifestation of Baator sitting on his shoulder, a rakshasa from a banished noble house in Acheron, a psion with questionable sanity, and to balance them out a NG cleric and his LG fighter cohort. Even evil people can have friends and shared goals. I've usually skewed towards evil enemies in all of my campaigns, but again when appropriate, I've used good creatures just as much. Removing good creatures out of some wierd desire to straightjacket PC concepts and campaign flavor is misguided in my opinion, and rather annoying. Scrubbing the serial numbers from previously good creatures and making them unaligned in 4e isn't a good solution either, because while you still technically have the creature, it's no longer the same outside of the name and superficial appearance perhaps. You still have the thematic restrictions built into the game's precepts, rather than there being a big tent approach to what campaigns can contain. Some folks are going to immediately say that including good monsters and their stats is a waist of space. Fair enough if you only use monsters for PCs to fight. But again that restricts others from using them as antagonists for evil PCs, or even occasionally for neutral or good PCs as well. And I've heavily used good monsters as allies and NPC cohorts in my games, and I think something is lost in that regard by shutting the door on good monsters in 4e material. That's my take on the matter. [/QUOTE]
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