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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lackhand" data-source="post: 3804631" data-attributes="member: 36160">I had a big long passionate tract, but this isn't really the place for it, and I'm too loopy to make it come out in acceptable english <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I guess my question is "why do types matter"?I think they're useful for targeting: knowing whether a ranger's favored foe comes into play, making targets for bane weapons, deciding whether Charm Serpents applies on a dragon, deciding whether the Serpent Cultist can summon monster X, or boost the morale of same.I think they're useful for lumping groups of abilities together: Does it breathe? Can it breathe underwater? Does it have darkvision? Is it harmed by a cure-light-wounds spell? Does it glow in the dark? Is it, in its natural state, invisible, on fire, or otherwise bizarre?I think they're useful for determining cultures: what languages should this speak, by default? Which weapons? Which animals does it tend to be encountered with? Which spells does it cast?I think they're useful for body type questions -- stability bonuses, for instance, are inherited from "type", of a sort.I posit that you can mix and match your answers to these questions, such that a monster can be defined by taking a grab bag of types. Undead-goblin-serpent-fire  is silly -- any lengthy random list is -- but it's kind of cool, conjuring up the image of a hunched over scaled goblin with a venomous bite whose shriveled flesh burns with spectral flame. It takes some sort of effect from cold, a side effect of the fire descriptor, and is harmed by curing; it speaks Goblin, wields goblinoid weapons, and is counted in any effects that affect Goblins, though it has a ton of resistances/immunities from being undead.If I decide that this week, I want it to be warlike, I swap Fire for War, and change only a few abilities. Same with changing Undead for Draconic, or Elemental, or Construct. And when I decide that these are the undead "heroes" of the Naga people, I remove the goblin descriptor, and keep using the same stats.Looks like I still had a tract. Sorry. Darn.</blockquote>

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