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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vraille Darkfang" data-source="post: 2893422" data-attributes="member: 16989">Well, so much for buying MMIV.I'll flip through it, but I won't be buying any more Monster books with that stack block (As I've bought almost every Monster Book I can find, that's bad).I guess they decided if they can't fix it, they'll just hide it.That's what the new stat block is.  Blatent Obfuscation.Think about it.By only listed X HD (XXX hp), what they are saying is:If I don't show you how I came up with this number, you have no idea whether it is right or not.  Imagine an Editor looking at a Medium Construct with a listing of 4 HD (42 hp) is going to realize how screwed up it is?  (It seems correct doesn't it; 5d10 +20 size).Nope, later on the monster has a Con score of 20. By not listing the Power Attack bonus, which is variable, it would take forever to find out if the Attack Bonus was right, or if it was wrong, where was the error?  Power Attack in excess of HD? Failure to add x1.5 due to 2 handed weapon?  Wrong Size Modifier to Attack?This new block is not making life any easier for the Editors to catch mistakes. But it is making it a hcek of a lot harder to see where the actual mistakes are (still there, just with a +5 bonus to Hide).I like to re-work monsters as key bad guys from time to time.  Or tweak monsters on the fly, which the new block makes darn near impossible.  And making a key foe will now take twice as long to figure out.I will give that the general layout of the Stat block MIGHT make it easier to run encounters, except they are leaving out way to many crucial details.If I buy Hordes of the Abyss, I'm gonna have to spend hours with a pencil "updating" before I'd even consider using a single monster in my game.  Then, I don't by that sort of book soley as a "Monster Book".  So, I'll read through it (completely) and then decide rather to buy it.Which is one heck of a downgrade from "Buy it.  But it now!"And MMIV has gone from a "Must Have" to a "90% No-No"If they stick with this new stat block, I'm fine with that (it might improve things).  If they refuse to 'fill out' the stat lines (HD type, bonus HP's, etc), they have lost a loyal customer of over a decade.Or,Silly Wizards, hiding the errors under a sheet doesn't get rid of them.</blockquote>

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