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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ShockMeSane" data-source="post: 4174966" data-attributes="member: 64606">Naturally, the hint of irony I find behind Kamikaze's post is that only resolving problems as defined in MM's, or more generally RAW, is that you get a whole different set of problems other than the "I don't want to jump through the DM's hoops" one. Namely, that once you've been playing an edition for a few years, even your more casual players are going to have 3/4ths of the common monsters memorized. Once you get your players going, "Oh, the enemy is a Lich, clearly we need to locate his Phylactery before even considering engaging him", it's as least as bad as having to find a DM created "Mirror of Pelor" scenario.I certainly understand the nature of the complaint, but there is a better middle ground for both players and DM's. Having DM'd many, many games over the years of course I have found some of the fluff in the MM valuable... once. If a Succubus ever dominated the King in one of my campaigns, the best answer as a DM, as it is in every scenario, is one of multiple choices. Will the PC's think of all the options? Will I as the DM think of them? Probably not on both accounts, but some of the most fantastic adventures I've ever run have come from a player's solution to a problem being one that I both found feasible and unexpected.I mean, a few examples of how the Domination could be broken:1) Killing the succubus.2) Dominating the King with a more powerful mind-effecting spell.3) Forcing the succubus to reveal her true form in front of the court. (Obvious ramifications here...)4) Negotiating with the succubus, possibly offering her something more valuable than the King's slavery. This offer may or may not be false.5) Finding some crazy magic item that breaks Dominate. See Mirror example from earlier post.And those are just a few ideas off the top of my head, that required virtually no thought. If you want to make it really interesting, is the King so dominated that if the Succubus is slain the spell will remain and he will take his own life or go mad with grief?I don't really see what all the hooplah is about. The MM apparently needs to contain this level of information for all monsters to make some people happy. These are all plot points that any reasonably intelligent human being can make decisions about on the fly if need be. You certainly don't need a stat-block to tell you how that only when the fourth and second moons are in perfect alignment with eachother, the first waxing gibbous and the second new, can the charm ever be broken. If you love those kind of details, you can fill them in for yourself with virtually no effort. I realize that when a DM only gives one solution to a problem it creates a poor roleplaying environment for players, as they are forced down the narrow path the DM has carefully laid out for them in advance. But really, I find throwing in the kind of information some people on these boards so desperately crave to create more battles with players than not including it. I mean, when the players have all read the MM's, they know exactly how to break a succubus charm, and it really takes a lot of storytelling power out of the hands of the DM unless he is willing to say, "Sorry, this one succubus is special and doesn't work that way." Which is kind of a weird cop-out on its own. I find it refreshing to be able to use iconic foes and not be trifled with heavily-mechanized fluff.</blockquote>

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