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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 6155996">A medusa will not kill at least one pc in every encounter, but they have the potential to kill one or more pcs. They and their SOD power are designed to make encounters terrifying. For me they succeed. The moment you realize all those statues in the courtyard came from a medusa, you get a feeling if dread in your belly. If the medusa couldnt turn you to stone so easily and on a single roll, I would not get this feeling. And moments like this are exactly why I game. So i think this is a perfectly acceptible design goal for a monster. What needs to be acknowledged is it doesn't work for everyone or for every playstyle. Really this says more about LA than the medusa or SOD. It doesn't mean save or die is broken. Some monsters are too powerrful to be player characters and that is fine. I really think all the things you have listed so far amount to preference. They are perfectly valid preferences to have, but they are still preferences and not everyone shares them. I see nothing wrong with a powerful monstrous humanoid too powerrful to be a PC race. Medusa are supposed to be scary because they turn you to stone. They are one of the most dangerous creatures taken from mythology. Having their gaze as a SOD effect, is a great way to emphasize that. But this is ultimately an issue of lethality. You appear to dislike that sod makes pc death posible on a single die roll. People have been raising these criticisms of SoD or a long time. It is a somewhat divisive mechanic. The problem is some peope really like it, and some really hate it. And that has everything to do with preference. Instead of denying the people who like it the mechanic on the grounds that it is "bad design" I think a much better solution is for WOTC to acknowledge ths division, state it is simply a matter of preference and offer up some mechanism to scale SOD to the desired level of lethality (perhaps even giving the option to simpy replace it with a flat damage roll).</blockquote>

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