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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 6299667" data-attributes="member: 29398">Put a 3e Hill Giant up against a party of 1st-level 3e types: guaranteed TPK and the Giant probably doesn't even work up a sweat.&nbsp; Put a 1e Hill Giant up against a party of 1st-level 1e-types: guaranteed party deaths but not at all a guaranteed TPK, and the Giant has a very real chance of itself dying.I can believe this.&nbsp; However...This design just doesn't resonate with me.&nbsp; A monster's xp value should be calculatable from its level (or HD) which in turn defines how well it can fight; its abilities, and its defenses...otherwise, if I invent my own monster how on earth can I work out what it's worth in xp?&nbsp; Yet here a level 8 is worth the same xp as a level 25.&nbsp; I don't get it, and likely never will. <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&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />That, and I can't wrap my head around the idea of a huge rough tough Giant going down as soon as it is hit for a single point of damage.Fair enough, and the principle applies to all editions if the specific numbers given are stripped out.&nbsp; But I think there still needs to be lots of variance - some pushovers, and some killers, mixed in with the challenges about equal to the party.&nbsp; 3e even went so far as to mention something like this in the DMG.However, there's a huge difference between having &quot;fewer&quot; hit points and having only one.&nbsp; If I want a monster to be easier to hit than others of its sort I'll just give it a worse AC; if I really want it going down fast I'll give it h.p. in the low end of its HD range.&nbsp; But it'll still have some h.p., and if it's a Giant it'll still probably take one or two good hits to hurt it badly and another one to finish it off.Lanefan</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 6299667, member: 29398"] Put a 3e Hill Giant up against a party of 1st-level 3e types: guaranteed TPK and the Giant probably doesn't even work up a sweat. Put a 1e Hill Giant up against a party of 1st-level 1e-types: guaranteed party deaths but not at all a guaranteed TPK, and the Giant has a very real chance of itself dying. I can believe this. However... This design just doesn't resonate with me. A monster's xp value should be calculatable from its level (or HD) which in turn defines how well it can fight; its abilities, and its defenses...otherwise, if I invent my own monster how on earth can I work out what it's worth in xp? Yet here a level 8 is worth the same xp as a level 25. I don't get it, and likely never will. :) That, and I can't wrap my head around the idea of a huge rough tough Giant going down as soon as it is hit for a single point of damage. Fair enough, and the principle applies to all editions if the specific numbers given are stripped out. But I think there still needs to be lots of variance - some pushovers, and some killers, mixed in with the challenges about equal to the party. 3e even went so far as to mention something like this in the DMG. However, there's a huge difference between having "fewer" hit points and having only one. If I want a monster to be easier to hit than others of its sort I'll just give it a worse AC; if I really want it going down fast I'll give it h.p. in the low end of its HD range. But it'll still have some h.p., and if it's a Giant it'll still probably take one or two good hits to hurt it badly and another one to finish it off. Lanefan [/QUOTE]

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