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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 5779832" data-attributes="member: 8158">Monsters are scary when they push players out of their comfort zone. This happens:1) They can bypass standard defenses.2) They have defenses against the party's "big gun" attacks.3) They don't play to the party's accustomed tactics.In the first case, bypassing defenses can be as simple as having good attack bonuses and extreme damage. Or it can be something exotic: energy drain or damage that can't be cured with magic. It can also mean attacking defenses that are typically lower than normal defenses. Or it can be the dreaded "save-or- toast" power. Dragons, beholders, rust monsters, and mind flayers were all made scary by being able to bypass standard defenses.In the second, resisting a big gun generally means either a resistance to magic, high defenses against certain types of damage. Parties can rely heavily on their own save-or-toast effects, so being immune to suc effects also gets their attention. Undead, oozes, and constructs were mainly scary because they were resistant or immune to a party's big guns.The third case is a bit more conditional, because different parties use different tactics, but most parties have either a melee or ranged configuration. It's funny how often I find that the resident fighter, paladin, or barbarian doesn't even bother to carry so much as a dagger for throwing or a light weapon for use in grappling. Flying monsters are especially troublesome for melee-heavy parties, as are monsters with aura effects. Monsters with extreme size, reach, or speed are big trouble for ranged parties.We lost the first two in 4e because were built according to a certain formula. They had weak damage up-front, and save-ends effects were too easy to scrape off. Worse still, it was a bad edition to be undead in, because your immunities went bye-bye while vulnerability to radiant made you a walking joke. The design philosophy was basically "being beaten up and having your attacks resisted isn't fun". What we got instead were monster that dazed to beat the band. Man, it sometimes seemed like being dazed was the default state in some campaigns. Get out of bed in the morning, shower, shave, and put on your daze hat.</blockquote>

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