Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Windjammer" data-source="post: 5692863" data-attributes="member: 60075">I'd have been more interested to see it applied to things other than Perception (and Insight) for which these things already exist. E.g. why not talk about automating more die rolls in combat? Players love to roll dice, so let's talk about the DM's end of things.4E introduced auto-damage for minions. It could have also introduced automating the to-hit roll for them. Take base to-hit bonus, DM always takes 10 = end result in your stat block, compare to static defense score of PC, and there's one big amount of time saved in combat (a major issue with 4E). Reserve rolling (and intricate stat blocks) for attacks and damage to big 'lead' monsters. Basically make team monster into 1 major guy who buffs 4 lesser monsters which mostly run on an auto-script, again to save time.Less die rolling, and puts the DM's decision making process all into the stat block of the lead monster. E.g. lead monster could buff the to-hit numbers of the monsters on auto script; PCs could try to disable him from doing it, and so on. Speeds up play, as it folds the DM's decision making during the encounter into one monster.Also, numbers would be easier to generate. Non-elite monsters have to-hit and damage numbers calculated on the basis of their level. As a DM I have a master table on my screen with non-elite monsters from level 1 to 30, and that's all I ever need for non-elites. All I ever need to create are mastermind or lead monsters. Designing encounters would be super easy - it'd have a core design element (the lead monster) and the rest of the encounter would write itself (by complementing the lead monster). Would also work greatly with the MM - it's a book full of lead monsters, each of which is basically its own encounter template. Would preserve the 4E idea of 'no longer fighting solo monsters but teams of monsters' but preserve the design focus on individual monsters which previous editions had (bonus points for nostalgia). Familiarity regained, 4e lesson learned, but greater and faster implementation overall - that's how I'd peg 5E design goals.Edit. Actually, the thing I propose already exists in 4E. Just take the stat block of any 4e solo monster, and instead of allocating its actions to a single monster generate 4 spawns who can take any of the solo's lesser actions at certain initiative counts. Voia la, you got 1 encounter in 1 stat block. Non-elite monsters are simply opportunities for taking combat actions; you want these to be able to move around the battle field to inflict the actions away from the elite.</blockquote>

Verification