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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dcollins" data-source="post: 331837" data-attributes="member: 876">This is one rant of Sean's which I think is nearly spot-on. He's definitely picked on an excellent example in the "Effigy" to beat up on some identifiable problems.The one thing I don't think anyone's mentioned, that I found the most jarring of all, is that the Effigy is a 27 Hit Dice, Medium-sized creature. This sort of design in expanded-level play always crops up (as in Basic D&D Companion+ rules), and it's always hard for me to swallow. A wildly powerful creature, as big as a man, breaks the versimilitude of fantasy physics which the core rules did a very good job of establishing (in which, powerful creatures tend to be larger and more identifiably intimidating). Skip's "How to Create a Monster" gave standard guidelines for monster hit dice, and, as an example, Medium-size undead max out at a suggested 2 Hit Dice (that's right: two Hit Dice). Not that that system was a perfect reflection of the Monster Manual (see here: <a href="http://www.superdan.net/dndmisc/monster_hit_dice.html" target="_blank">www.superdan.net/dndmisc/monster_hit_dice.html</a> ), but clearly a 27 HD monster blows that system, and those assumptions, completely away.I guess not every Epic monster can be Colossal, because that would get pretty dry. But clearly the need to extend the system runs into a ceiling of the sizing assumptions in the core rules. It breaks the quasi-physics assumptions of players of the core rules. It makes you wonder why you never saw a 27 HD undead floating through any of the 1st-level dungeons you adventured in, and they could have easily entered and taken over. It makes nightshades look cartoonish in comparison, to say nothing of liches or supposedly-fearsome vampires.I would be perfectly happy if post-20th level were simply deity-level power, but then that would be one less book to sell.</blockquote>

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