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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gez" data-source="post: 2245795" data-attributes="member: 1328">The more powerful a monster is, the less likely they'll have a number of class levels.Their ECL. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Seriously, I don't bother about NPC exp, so I have no qualms putting a Great Gold Wyrm loremaster 30 somewhere... Although I try to refrain from having too many epic characters running around, if I need one, there he is!But the fact is, these creatures already have naturally everything they need. Should they try to outgrow their limits and become something more? Not without good incentives, I'd say.I see the PC class motto as "Be more than you can be" -- you're a puny human, without even a racial HD of your own, and yet you can get to become an epic wizard and learn to reshape the Creation to your liking! Kewl! It's worth trying.Now, rather than a puny human, you're a mighty dragon. Your claws are sharper than any sword, your wings can make you fly faster than any birds, your intellect can solve Roman's DM's puzzle in a matter of seconds, your hyper-efficient stomach can let your survive indefinitely on a diet of rocks, your scaly hide is an armor stronger than many castles' walls, and your mere breath is more than enough to destroy most would-be enemies.If you really want to be even more powerful, all you need to do is hibernate until the next age category.Why should you try pushing your limits? Can you even reach them?To put it another way... If we humans had the claws of a tiger and the fur of a bear, would have we bothered domesticating fire and crafting weapons? Our weaknesses are our strength, for it made us look for ways to out them, and this result in us being the mightiest animals out there.Back to D&D world. Dragons are innately überpowerful. Their strength is their weakness, for they're perfectly content being just what they are. Being an average dragon is good enough for them. Even being a weaker-than-average dragon is good enough to be subjugate a few tribes of humanoids and get worshipped as a god and receive offerings of loot and food for the rest of your long, long, long life.Why should they bother with the risks and the strains of that adventuring life that let a few humans become deities -- and the vast majority of their fellows become corpses, when even that remain from desintegration/lava immersion/troll feast...Because, for dragons, it's more trouble than what it's worth to get class levels. And for orcs and goblins, usually a high-level goblin or orc becomes the leader of the tribe, and thus get assassinated during his sleep (or through poison, or whatever they can devise) by a lower-level tribemember who thinks he'll get to be the new leader. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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