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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 1795323" data-attributes="member: 1757">I did say "nothing else" for a reason, Psion. It seems like the biggest AoO problems for gamers wanting a simpler system are the movement-related ones and the concept in general..."Easier"? That list of suggestions was something that I figured any DM could implement in about ten seconds. Of course, a simpler system is possible, but I wouldn't consider it "easier to com[e] up with." There's a reason why they had to have designers enlisted for C&C.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Did you really not find this a problem when DM-ing earlier editions of the game? I know I did. IMHO, that's not edition-specific at all. A back issue of Dragon has a quiz on how to run some difficult 2e NPCs, including an 18th/19th-level drow cleric/wizard with some pearls of power and (worse still!) a tinker gnome using the invention tables from Dragonlance Adventures. Off the top of my head, I can't imagine how either of those two NPCs would be easier to run than an equivalently high-level 3e NPCs. In fact, they seem harder.IMHO, the only quick solution to the NPC design problem is to use stock NPCs. The nice thing about 3e (well, actually, about 2004) is that there are scads of those floating around on the Web, and scads of programs to generate 'em. I myself have photocopies of the NPC stats from RttToEE, CotSQ, The Banewarrens, and a bunch of online sources (with 3.5 changes inked in) for use as appropriate. I have only had to design a rare few "boss monsters," a task that takes mere minutes using some of the NPC generators out there.Sure, you'll be re-using similar feat and spell "builds," but that's really the same thing as removing feats and skills altogether in favor of fixed-progression class abilities, the only difference being that the option of building more uniquely-customized NPCs is always there, given time.As to running them: I don't actually see combat as being more difficult to run than in 1e/2e, provided you handwave movement and cut back on AoOs. The one tip I might make is to never use wizard NPCs; sorcerers are much, much easier to DM on the fly. Also, cribbing round-by-round tactics from the MM and Dungeon adventures is easy; several NPC "types" have similar enough abilities that the round-by-round tactics can be applied more generally than might otherwise be thought possible.</blockquote>

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