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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SKyOdin" data-source="post: 4654499" data-attributes="member: 57939">The reason you can figure out so easily how to use those monsters by reading their powers is because the monsters were designed with a specific role in mind. Role is not just a descriptor to tell a DM how to use a monster, it is a guideline that a designer uses when creating the monster in the first place. That also extends to homebrew monsters: the guidelines that are given by a monsters role make designing a monster a simple process. For example, lets say I want to make a mid-Paragon tier Elite Soldier monster, based on a rough concept that I have in my head. Mechanically, I am already half-done creating the monster, since I can now just use the charts in the DMG to fill in most of its statistics. At that point, I really just have to design powers, and that is a breeze because I can just look at other monsters of the same role to get a general sense of what kind of power is appropriate. Creating custom monsters would be much more trouble without role to serve as a guideline.  I couldn't possibly disagree more. I can't imagine going back to an RPG system that doesn't have minions. Minions don't bother me from an immersion stand-point, since I am already used to the concept of mooks as they appear in movies, television, and novels. And the gameplay mechanics for minions seem to work out very well in gameplay as far as I have seen.</blockquote>