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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 4093651" data-attributes="member: 1054">Having torn my hair out over monster math (even with an Excel sheet I wrote to do 80% of it for me) and endless fiddly things like "If it has one natural attack, it does +50% damage" (or something like that, I don't remember anymore), I can appreciate the ease of use from a writer's perspective. From a DMs perspective, I'm not sure I'm sold -- one of the great things about the current monster books is that the bulk of the things in there aren't just monsters -- they're potential NPCs. Anything with an Int score of 6 or so can show up in an interesting non-combat capacity as well. With powers balanced around "The monster will fight the PCs for an encounter", how well do these powers work when "The monster is traveling with the heroes as their ally" or "The monster is a powerful figure in the community who cannot be attacked directly"? I'm not talking specifically about summoned or companion creatures, which I know will have special rules which make them useful in those areas, but about the general inhabitants of the world who end up being part of the game.It seems things in 4e -- not just monsters, everything -- is really focused on being used for a specific purpose, and it does that job very very well, much better than its 3e counterpart did -- but at the same time, it is less useful when you try to do something else with it. 3e gave you a swiss army knife; 4e gives you a big box of high quality tools. Advantage -- each tool is much better at its job. Disadvantage -- you have to keep swapping tools. (The wolf you fight in the woods isn't the same as the wolf your druid has his animal companion, etc.)</blockquote>

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