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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orcus" data-source="post: 4102567" data-attributes="member: 1254">I will say there are a few things I want to improve about monster design in 4E.1. More description. Right now, due to space limits is my guess, there is almost no description of the monster and how it acts away from the battle mat. Our Tome of Horrors will add in a bit more of that content. Monsters should be more than just a mini pic and a stat block of encounter info--at least the way I play D&D they are. Monsters are not just adventure road bumps. 2. Weaknesses. Not everything is about how much damage a monster can deal out. Some monsters have unique weaknesses (like the old alley reaper from the creature collection; grab its cloak and you could destroy it and thus the monster--temporarily). We like those kinds of things. We intend to add them in to our monsters. 3. Plot stuff and lesser powers. Sure, some monsters were either traps or poor excuses for adventure plots. The monster itself was almost never encountered. 4E seems to be avoiding these monsters totally. But, I think in doing so it is omitting all the "story" kind of powers. Plus, some monsters have lesser powers, like light or minor charms or cantrips or things that are neat for understanding the monster but might not make their way into a combat stat block. Nevertheless, they are important to the monster. That stuff will be noted in our monsters. Just because a minor power doesnt lend itself to combat doesnt mean it isnt important for a monster description. I think those types of things help DMs--who are the ones who have to run the monster and be inspired by the monster--help to understand the monster and how it fits in that particular DMs game world. Luckily, with the flexibility of 4E that stuff will be easy to add in. And, I should add, that stuff isnt a failure of 4E, it is more (in my view) a failure of the MM to include that stuff, not the rules. In fact the 4E rules let me model those weakenesses better than I have been able to before. Clark</blockquote>

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