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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Graf" data-source="post: 331757" data-attributes="member: 3087">'When I read the Effigy when they first released the stats I had to agree that it sounded a bit powerful and a bit lame.However I think that attitude was probably wrong. I've been DMing a lot and I think what makes a good encounter is "something interesting". It can be threatening and powerful or it can just be thought provoking but that's what makes for cool encounters. The premise of the monster (the effigy) is good, it does numerious interesting things to people and (despite what people seem to think) can be handled in numerous ways. Many of which have been mentioned and ignored on this very thread.SKR is almost certainly right about the monster stats being out of whack with the WotC system. While it being a WotC product doesn't make it immune it would be nice to see these unwritten rules written down somewhere; both SKR and MC refer to stuff like this frequently but the original monster creation article in Dragon didn't touch on this stuff and while it trickles through comments on message boards it would be nice to see a concrete version.[edit: I think the short names thing was definitely in the article but a lot of the other unwriteen rules that, mostly 3rd party, publishers have been criticized for note adhering to during monster creation aren't written out anywhere.]A more complex xp system probably sounds nice in theory but its not really. As soon as something changes (the poison from a previous encounter takes effect and knocks out the barbarian, a wandering monster steal's the sword of ghost touch, etc) the ssytem suddenly falls out of wack.I'm not saying that some effort on this front shouldn't be made, just that making up a bunch of categories and trying to squeeze things in is wierd.The Law of Large NumbersWith regard to lack of equality with CRs I think its fairly obvious that the system isn't correct.  As an example: in the Banewarrens the first chapter culminates in a fight with a CR 7 monster. Another CR 7 monster related to a troll shows up two chapters later. Both creatures have good reasons for being CR7 but the second one is much more dangerous to just about any party. I don't think this is a big deal. Over the course of their character's adventuring careers, the adventuring careers of all their characters, of all the characters of people on these boards this will even out.Roleplaying games where a group of people face off against a single individual will always have a problem of the party killing off foes quickly. If a 6th level (or a 16th level) party had CRs they would each be X CR. Putting something of CR X against a group of well organized (not all parties but most are) CR X creatures is guaranteed to make for a short fight.Why is it strange that four ogres can beat the stuffing out of a single ogre fairly quickly?</blockquote>

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