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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StreamOfTheSky" data-source="post: 5178387" data-attributes="member: 35909">It sounds to me like Ogre Mage is CR 8 mostly because of a (relative for the levels involved) powerful 1/day spell-like ability.  That's pretty crappy design, IMO.  Especially since he basically has to use it the first round before revealing himself to be sure to get it off before dying.  And I distinctly remember advice in the MM saying that monsters aren't generally supposed to come right out firing off all of their daily resources, or their most powerful ones.  They're supposed to be treated reasonably as creatures in the world.  The Ogre Mage wouldn't want to waste his only nuke for the day on easy pickings and then be screwed later if he needs it, so it makes no sense to me that he'd just go and open a fight with it in most scenarios.  Obviously, if he knows about the party and their threat level, that could be an exception.I guess that design concept changed as more groups reported their spellcasters starting off fights with their heaviest hitters in the hopes of ending the fight sooner and take less damage.  A rather tragic cycle of logic.  "The faster things die, the safer we'll be," causing the DM to respond in kind with the NPCs.Ah, critical fumble rolls.  Inserting "realism" into the game since 2001.  Because everyone knows that in reality, if a line of archers all fires their bows in formation, surely at least one of them will destroy his bow beyond use or comically drop the ammunition.</blockquote>

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