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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5070298" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>I fail to see how illusions, weather, and invisibility are irrelevant in combat.</p><p></p><p>In fact, quite the opposite, I see them being very key in combat. And part of what makes the fight with the adult blue dragon different from a fight with, I dunno, <em>Dire Pikachu</em>, who I bet can also do some things with lightning.</p><p></p><p>The D&D game has millions of monsters. Your imagination has at least a few more where those came from. Even the current edition is probably over 1,000 by now. Why should I bother using an adult blue dragon, out of all of them?</p><p></p><p>4e doesn't really give me a reason. It is an electricity lizard. It is a dire pikachu. I can do almost the same thing by doing a find-replace for "fire" to "electricity" in the Red Dragon entry. There'd be some subtle differences, but no one will notice them except the DM. You could've just included a "dragon" statblock with fear and frenzy and claws and bites and then given me an menu of 5 different energy effects to slap on as I please. It's all the same dire pokemon.</p><p></p><p>Pathfinder gives me a reason, because it sets up the blue dragon as a <em>Mirage Dragon</em>. It is a unique challenge, one that has a special nature of its own that is not easily replicated by any other monster. It is a deceptive dragon who forces enemies to waste time and effort attacking nothingness, arrogantly invisible just beyond their reach, taunting them in the voices of various NPC's the party was supposed to rescue (that it also used to lure them here). It destroys their water spitefully before it flees, letting the desert slowly kill them. It darts ahead of static-laden sandstorms, blending with the sky. PF's dragon is almost a full encounter. Slap it on a map, and I'm good to go. 4e's dragon is just a block o' numbers. Necessary, yes, but insufficient. I have no context, and no reason to use it. It could be hiding somewhere in the desert, or it could be the 4e version of <u>Orc and Pie</u>. For all it's loathed complexity and cross-referencing, PF's dragon is sufficient (even if it is not the most elegant). It has context, and it stands out from its surroundings.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 5070298, member: 2067"] I fail to see how illusions, weather, and invisibility are irrelevant in combat. In fact, quite the opposite, I see them being very key in combat. And part of what makes the fight with the adult blue dragon different from a fight with, I dunno, [I]Dire Pikachu[/I], who I bet can also do some things with lightning. The D&D game has millions of monsters. Your imagination has at least a few more where those came from. Even the current edition is probably over 1,000 by now. Why should I bother using an adult blue dragon, out of all of them? 4e doesn't really give me a reason. It is an electricity lizard. It is a dire pikachu. I can do almost the same thing by doing a find-replace for "fire" to "electricity" in the Red Dragon entry. There'd be some subtle differences, but no one will notice them except the DM. You could've just included a "dragon" statblock with fear and frenzy and claws and bites and then given me an menu of 5 different energy effects to slap on as I please. It's all the same dire pokemon. Pathfinder gives me a reason, because it sets up the blue dragon as a [I]Mirage Dragon[/I]. It is a unique challenge, one that has a special nature of its own that is not easily replicated by any other monster. It is a deceptive dragon who forces enemies to waste time and effort attacking nothingness, arrogantly invisible just beyond their reach, taunting them in the voices of various NPC's the party was supposed to rescue (that it also used to lure them here). It destroys their water spitefully before it flees, letting the desert slowly kill them. It darts ahead of static-laden sandstorms, blending with the sky. PF's dragon is almost a full encounter. Slap it on a map, and I'm good to go. 4e's dragon is just a block o' numbers. Necessary, yes, but insufficient. I have no context, and no reason to use it. It could be hiding somewhere in the desert, or it could be the 4e version of [U]Orc and Pie[/U]. For all it's loathed complexity and cross-referencing, PF's dragon is sufficient (even if it is not the most elegant). It has context, and it stands out from its surroundings. [/QUOTE]
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