D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

[Micah Sweet]

I'm honestly not sure what the answer is for 5E. Arcane Burst came about for the same reason that monster damage increased so much in the 2025 Monster Manual... because the old versions weren't hitting as hard as their CR would recommend, at least not without customizing their spells and running them super optimally. (And don't get me started on the '14 mage having only 40 HP at CR6).

Arcane Burst is clumsy but it may be necessary idiot-proofing.

They should have just lowered the CR IMO. Compatibility be damned!

 

[Chaltab]

They should have just lowered the CR IMO. Compatibility be damned!

Fair! My other thought would be reducing HP growth for PCs, but that seems like a change for a full edition number, not something trying for backwards compatibility.

 

[Lanefan]

3E introduced the idea that all NPCs must follow the same PC rules, in general. And got rid of "special crazy unbalanced powers and abilities". Anything a 3E NPC had, a PC could also have.

As an Old School Gamer, you should just embrace it and make up unique NPCs.

I'm an "Old School Gamer" (at least according to many here ) and I think 3e got this bang-on right for NPCs that are PC-playable species. If an NPC can do it then a PC of the same class and species should at the very least have the potential to do it; ditto for the reverse.

Where 3e got it wrong was trying to expand the same idea to cover a lot of non-PC-playable species.