NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rex Blunder" data-source="post: 4175328" data-attributes="member: 60850">Somewhere in the thread people got the idea that "4e has no fluff". This is clearly false. 4e has a story team that is building tons of fluff - more than ever before since 1e, I bet. (Some people like this new fluff and some do not, but that's another issue.)The main issue is "4e has no out-of-combat crunch".My guess is that there is more of this than we are assuming, and both the "4e will allow us to make up our own. finally!" and "why am i paying for incomplete rules" people are jumping to conclusions. I think there will be less than 3e, but more than the "0" that we all seem to have agreed on in this thread.Since this thread is mostly about monsters, I'll mention the points that occurred to me about them in the context of out-of-combat crunch:1) We really haven't seen many full monster entries, so we don't know what is in them: most of our monster entries are from Scalegloom Hall and minis cards, which are just the stat blocks. There have been a few monsters released on the WOTC site, which may or not be the full monster entry, or may be edited to hide things they haven't announced yet.2) The aboleth: I think Mustrum Ridcully is dead on: a "fluff" line about the aboleth's ability to control minions would have been just as useful as minion-controlling crunch that Lizard had to rewrite.3) The lich: I don't remember there being instructions on how to create a phylactery on 3.5 either. I thought it was some unspecified "horrible ritual" or something. EDIT: I must be thinking of earlier editions. The monster manual does tell the required feats, XP cost, and GP cost of making a phylactery. I guess I'm arguing from my conclusion here, but that seems ridiculous. Really, there have to be core rules for when a player wants to become a lich? Has anyone ever used these rules?4) The succubus: The first thing that springs to mind is, "Does the succubus REALLY need more out-of-combat controlling abilities?" The succubus can take on the form of a super-beautiful, sexually available woman. She needs what else to get the king's attention?If she is given some way to cast some Charm on the king, unbreakable without the mirror of Pelor, what's the point of her being super hot? She can look like the girl next door. She can look like an ugly old man, and there's no need to get sex involved at all. The point of succubi is they are supposed to be sexually tempting, not that they can cast a spell on you and control your actions.I'm fine with her being able to use her devilish feminine wiles to control the king, with an occasional Dominate for key six-second periods: "No, honey, I will not sign this bill to raise taxes, not even for you ... uh... i guess I will after all. Hmm. I thought I didn't want to do that, but... ok, kissy time it is!"</blockquote>

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