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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7312415" data-attributes="member: 12731">Beware spell-casting monsters. The idea that you can switch out the pre-chosen spells with no change in CR is a complete falsehood.Monsters usually have a very anemic spell load-out. Essentially, monsters in the MM showcase all the red and brown spells that no player uses ever. This not only helps them stick to their assigned CR, it also makes one monster look and feel separate from another. (In addition: some spells that come off as weak or strange are actually quite good when player characters are the expected foe. One good example is Power Word Kill. At level 17, when you face CR 21+ foes, it makes no sense, since your Fighter buddy can simply cause 100 points of damage and save you a level 9 slot that the monster probably would legendary-ignore anyway. OTOH, when you are a CR 15 creature facing level 10 characters, PWK is excellent since it probably insta-kills the party wizard and saves you a world of hurt)Somewhat simplified, any player worth his salt would instantly dump the level 3 spells described and load up on Fireball, Invisibility and Shield, just to pick the one combo, and that would significantly empower that character. I would want to be very restrictive when it comes to monsters with spells. Essentially I would say "these are the spells you know/have learned/prepared", and then ask the player to choose another monster if he or she isn't basically content with the spells given. Sure I would be open to the occasional switch-out, but each such change should be approved by the DM (at least until you trust the player enough), and should mainly keep to the monster's "theme". The obvious example is: any winter or glacier monster will stick to cold spells, even though 99% of encounters at home will be resistant or immune to your spells. There is no reason for this, it just is the way it is. A player questioning this should be treated as a flag he or she is not ready to play a monster caster. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> (or at the very least, become a spellcasting character, so you can pick your own spells - though if you expect your monster abilities to stack with class abilities, you will need to observe your "theme").</blockquote>

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