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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FourthBear" data-source="post: 4031519" data-attributes="member: 55846">From what we've seen of the Pit Fiend stats, it appears that monsters, NPCs and PCs will indeed be using the same rules, in the sense that they will be represented by the same statistics that determine how they interact with the game mechanics.  The Pit Fiend has ability scores, skills, AC, hit points, defenses, Action Points, special abilities and all of the other things that a PC would have.  From this, we can surmise that the difference is not in how they run in the game, it is in how their statistics are generated.  PCs are generated by the system given in the Player's Handbook, which involves a process that is intended to generate PCs that have their own niches, are roughly balanced against each other inside and outside of combat and who progress at a certain pace in power per level.  In 4e, as in all editions of D&D, monsters are generated by a different process.  In 1e and 2e, this process was not particularly systematic or well presented in the three core books.  In 3e, this process involved a system that roughly resembled a PC-like process presented in the MM.  This process took a fair amount of time and produced questionable results (uncalled for feats, inappropriate skill points and high hit dice undead, anyone?).  What makes for a "good" monster, mechanically?  To a first approximation, it is the range of numbers in its stats.  We all know that a monster can have "too low" or "too high" an AC or attack bonus for a given CR/level.  In 4e, there has been some effort in the game design to figure out what range of numbers should be there.  If they are correct, then given these numbers as targets, we can use them to generate monsters without having to go through all the rigamarole of the previous monster generation system.  Exceptions to the general rules can, of course, be made when the designer wished to make an exceptional monster.  However, these occur in the primary design step: the conception.  Not in the secondary step: the generation system.  With such a method for monsters, it can be used for quick NPC creation as well.  However, some DMs and players apparently feel that using this would somehow be unfair or cheating.  That NPCs should be generated the same way as PCs only.  For these, the generation system in the Player's Handbook should be fine.</blockquote>

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