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<blockquote data-quote="Obryn" data-source="post: 5021901" data-attributes="member: 11821">I think some others have covered some similar ground, but I'd rather, as a DM, be able to say &quot;Yes, but...&quot; than &quot;No.&quot;One of the fundamental changes in 4e was that NPCs/Monsters and PCs are created differently within the system.&nbsp; It's a core element to 4e which some folks love and some folks hate.&nbsp; If you want your NPCs and PCs to be built with the same rules, 4e is not the game for it.&nbsp; A side-effect of this is that it's incoherent to build a PC using a monster as a baseline - which we're kinda running into here. (Unless I broke out the DMG2 Companion rules, which may or may not keep things interesting enough for a full-time character.)So if a player wanted a minotaur, and there were no rules for it, I'd work with them on a character that hit on the essential features of minotaur-ness while remaining balanced in play.&nbsp; For 4e, this would be a new race.&nbsp; 3.5, otoh, kept the balance with level adjustments and racial hit dice, with occasional... mixed results *cough*[spoiler]Yak-Folk[/spoiler]*cough*.This is an inevitable side-effect of how PCs and NPCs work under 4e.&nbsp; IMO, it's handled very, very well and makes my job easy.&nbsp; It's not to everyone's tastes, is all.-O</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Obryn, post: 5021901, member: 11821"] I think some others have covered some similar ground, but I'd rather, as a DM, be able to say "Yes, but..." than "No." One of the fundamental changes in 4e was that NPCs/Monsters and PCs are created differently within the system. It's a core element to 4e which some folks love and some folks hate. If you want your NPCs and PCs to be built with the same rules, 4e is not the game for it. A side-effect of this is that it's incoherent to build a PC using a monster as a baseline - which we're kinda running into here. (Unless I broke out the DMG2 Companion rules, which may or may not keep things interesting enough for a full-time character.) So if a player wanted a minotaur, and there were no rules for it, I'd work with them on a character that hit on the essential features of minotaur-ness while remaining balanced in play. For 4e, this would be a new race. 3.5, otoh, kept the balance with level adjustments and racial hit dice, with occasional... mixed results *cough*[spoiler]Yak-Folk[/spoiler]*cough*. This is an inevitable side-effect of how PCs and NPCs work under 4e. IMO, it's handled very, very well and makes my job easy. It's not to everyone's tastes, is all. -O [/QUOTE]

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