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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 6300535" data-attributes="member: 6775031">It's not that the combat stat blocks itself represents everything about the creature, but it does reflect the true nature of a creature. Your Reflex save/defense, for example, is a reflection of your balance/coordination and your combat experience and any specialized training. All stats have meaning, based on objective facts about the creature; and, as long as those objective facts don't change, you can't claim consistency if you then change how those objective facts are represented. It's inconsistent for Gerry the Giant to sometime have AC 35 and 1hp, or sometimes have AC 18 and 50hp, because the objective facts behind why he has those stats has not changed.I don't think anyone is arguing that 4E has ever tried to paint an objective reality, though. Everyone is pretty much in agreement that 4E was designed with either narrative or gameplay as priority, rather than simulation. I'd be surprised if they never came right out and said that it's okay to violate consistency in order to make for a better story or more interesting game. My point is only that 5E should aim to be capable of representing a consistent objective reality, as every edition prior to 4E has been designed.For the record, though, you could fit a medium character from 3.5 into a space that's only 2.5 feet wide, and it would merely suffer massive penalties to hit and AC, etc. You could comfortably fit four people into a car, and as long as nobody was attacked or trying to attack from that position, everything would be fine.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 6300535, member: 6775031"] It's not that the combat stat blocks [I]itself[/I] represents everything about the creature, but it does [I]reflect[/I] the true nature of a creature. Your Reflex save/defense, for example, is a reflection of your balance/coordination and your combat experience and any specialized training. All stats have [I]meaning[/I], based on objective facts about the creature; and, as long as those objective facts don't change, you can't claim consistency if you then change how those objective facts are represented. It's inconsistent for Gerry the Giant to sometime have AC 35 and 1hp, or sometimes have AC 18 and 50hp, because the objective facts behind [I]why[/I] he has those stats has not changed. I don't think anyone is arguing that 4E has ever tried to paint an objective reality, though. Everyone is pretty much in agreement that 4E was designed with either narrative or gameplay as priority, rather than simulation. I'd be surprised if they never came right out and said that it's okay to violate consistency in order to make for a better story or more interesting game. My point is only that 5E [I]should aim[/I] to be capable of representing a consistent objective reality, as every edition prior to 4E has been designed. For the record, though, you could fit a medium character from 3.5 into a space that's only 2.5 feet wide, and it would merely suffer massive penalties to hit and AC, etc. You could comfortably fit four people into a car, and as long as nobody was attacked or trying to attack from that position, everything would be fine. [/QUOTE]

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