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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6262484" data-attributes="member: 4937">The 4e way of thinking about NPCs is just the 1e way revisited.&nbsp;&nbsp; 1e treated NPCs and PCs as largely obeying different rules.&nbsp; 'Bandit' was a type of monster.&nbsp;&nbsp; Orc leaders had more HD, but they weren't classed.&nbsp;&nbsp; And so forth.&nbsp;&nbsp; It had its good sides and its bad sides.&nbsp;&nbsp; On the good side, 4HD was a largely adequate description of a monster - a template of a monster if you would.&nbsp; On the bad side, it wasn't a particularly interesting description and on the whole, NPCs could never really be the equal of PCs at all in the long run sticking to the monsters are just HD template.&nbsp; Lacking dexterity and constitution (and in most cases, strength) meant that NPCs were hugely disadvantaged against the sorts of PCs that survived and readily built up levels.&nbsp; 4e spent more effort trying to get the math the work, but...Exactly.&nbsp;&nbsp; Basically there is no middle way.&nbsp; You have only two choices when it comes to &quot;monsters&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; Either you can build them yourself, which is always a somewhat complicated process if you want good results, or else you must rely on someone else to build them and look them up from a reference of some sort.&nbsp;&nbsp; If you are looking for simplicity, D&amp;D has always advocated for the latter - that's what the 'Monster Manual' is for, even in 4e.&nbsp;&nbsp; Simplified customization options are always fraught with difficulties of some sort or the other.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6262484, member: 4937"] The 4e way of thinking about NPCs is just the 1e way revisited. 1e treated NPCs and PCs as largely obeying different rules. 'Bandit' was a type of monster. Orc leaders had more HD, but they weren't classed. And so forth. It had its good sides and its bad sides. On the good side, 4HD was a largely adequate description of a monster - a template of a monster if you would. On the bad side, it wasn't a particularly interesting description and on the whole, NPCs could never really be the equal of PCs at all in the long run sticking to the monsters are just HD template. Lacking dexterity and constitution (and in most cases, strength) meant that NPCs were hugely disadvantaged against the sorts of PCs that survived and readily built up levels. 4e spent more effort trying to get the math the work, but... Exactly. Basically there is no middle way. You have only two choices when it comes to "monsters". Either you can build them yourself, which is always a somewhat complicated process if you want good results, or else you must rely on someone else to build them and look them up from a reference of some sort. If you are looking for simplicity, D&D has always advocated for the latter - that's what the 'Monster Manual' is for, even in 4e. Simplified customization options are always fraught with difficulties of some sort or the other. [/QUOTE]

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