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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5858716" data-attributes="member: 22424">The game should indeed provide guidance for the DM in assigning both monsters and treasure. However, it should also make it very clear (at least in the DMG, if not also in the PHB) that this is guidance and that the DM can disregard it if he wishes.Plus, the published adventures should then apply that guidance, including the presence of "overwhelming" encounters if those are discussed. One of the worst mistakes in 3e came after "Forge of Fury", which included the infamous Roper encounter, after which there was a storm of protest at it being overpowered, and after which WotC never again included such an overwhelming encounter in their adventures.As for which system to use...The 3e Challenge Rating system was an improvement on what had gone before, but the 4e "XP Budget" and "Monster Roles" system is much better than that. Encounter design was one of the best features of the entire 4e system, and I would advocate that they should just keep that system more or less as-is, with the sole exception of adding a bit more discussion of how to use the system to develop quick-playing encounters, and perhaps some more on the 'proper' use of minions.As for treasure...To be honest, I would prefer the system to consider magic items an integral part of the character - that is, Stormbringer is basically a part of Elric's class, rather than just some magic item he has happened to pick up. The consequence of that is that if a player wants his character to have a particular item, he has to buy it with the same "character building points" that he uses to get feats, spells, whatever. (See "Mutants & Masterminds" for an example of what I mean.)That way, any treasures a character finds during his adventures are considered to be "on loan" - the PC gets to use them for now, but he should expect to lose access to them at any future time... If he wants to keep the item, then next time he levels up he needs to invest enough to 'buy' it.</blockquote>

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