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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreyLord" data-source="post: 7962918" data-attributes="member: 4348">In earlier editions, Monsters were based upon monsters.Animals were also feared.  Animals that were rabid or invading settlements were dangerous and you could quest to destroy the whole pack.  If you could tame an animal, or monster-like animal in a few cases, you were lucky.   Animals were much better than monsters.  Animals were just acting as they did in nature and were not naturally wanting to promote evil or evil causes.Monsters on the other hand were monsters.  Think things like the most sadistic, psychotic, and evil humans that are irreparably unchanging in their ways.  You could not change a monster.  That's why they were monsters.  They were the things that went bump in the night.  They were the creatures that preyed on your fears and then destroyed you.Saying one could live side by side of a monster is like saying you could live side by side with Dracula, or a Banshee, and not have to fear for your life (or worse, your soul).You would stand a better chance of domesticating an invading army of army ants or Africanized Killer bees than you would a monster.This is why the quests were to wipe out the entire group of monsters, because they WERE monsters.  They were not just another form of human or another racial subtype, they were literally the things that nightmares were written from.  They were the Freddy Krugers, the Hellraisers of legend come to live in the game.Things and perceptions have changed from those times and we do not really view many of the monsters that WERE monsters from back then as monsters any more.  It's a lot like demi-human races.  We do not view the races and creatures so different form humans that their entire way of life and how they act are different.  Instead, we simply act as if they are humans with pointy ears or shorter than normal.  We seem to have the same reaction to what were formerly known as monsters.  They are either humans who look different, OR they are more like animals than actual monsters today.I think that it is how the game is run on how one would treat monsters.  If they are treated like the irredeemable creatures from hell that were spread upon earth as they were seen in fairy tales and in many early D&D games, wiping out the entire lot of them may be the ONLY way to stop the horror and terror they bring.  If you do not, even the smallest one will bring horror and destruction if it can.  That's just the way they think and act.  They cannot change it, it is an innate part of what they are.They are literally the incarnations of evil.  Evil is what they are made of, and as such, their only real goals in life is to the pursuit of evil and all it's incarnations.  Good heroes seek to wipe these horrors from the face of the earth.On the other hand, if it is a more modern take where they are simply humans with different looks, or more of an animalistic nature, then wiping out an entire group or colony of them would seem more like an evil act than something a good character would consider.  I think many groups play this way today, and so destroying creatures that are basically just like humans, but with different goals and alignments in general, seem distasteful.  They can be retrained or reintegrated and even made to work within civilized society if one tries.  If more animalistic, they could be trained.The two different views are two very different games and ways of playing.Edit:  I am adding, neither way is the wrong way to play.  They both have their adherents and some who mix the two and are in between both ways of playing.  What may be true in one game, may not be in another and vice versa.  It is good to know what type of game the DM is running before you start, but that probably is true of many different ways one can play the game beyond even the above different styles of play.</blockquote>

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