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<blockquote data-quote="Aberzanzorax" data-source="post: 5943049" data-attributes="member: 64209">I've responded to the second paragraph already (in agreement, sorry can't xp you again...too recent). &nbsp;But to address the first paragraph: I agree. Sometimes it's just &quot;here's a random encounter&quot;. I'm TOTALLY fine (and frequently do) use monsters in that way. Not every monster needs to be used in a grander scheme nor do we need to pay attention to the &quot;feelings&quot; of a monster being important. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />&nbsp;However, the way a monster is used versus the way a monster is written up is quite important, IMO. There should not be a monster whose purpose in its writeup is &quot;this is a random enounter monster whose purpos is to be thrown at pcs.&quot; Actually, I take that back. They could even write that, and I'd be ok with it. That might even be a cool thing at the end of each monster entry, how they forsee the utilization of each monster in the context of adventures (might make things easy on DMs).&nbsp;I see no reason why it can't be both: a monster with a motivation and a rich ecology, and the fact that the motivation and rich ecology just don't matter a whit in a given encounter. e.g. The players are too close to the eggs, or the hook horrors were recently attacked by similar looking humans (or any humans...we all look alike to hook horrors) or whatever so it becomes &quot;monsters vs pcs, random encounter style&quot;. &nbsp;What a motivation and rich ecology provides is a background for a DM to understand how they might work in a more meaningful way. Having meaningless random fights is fun too. I don't think anyone would want to be given &quot;The Big Book of Meaningless Random Fighting Creatures&quot; though.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Aberzanzorax, post: 5943049, member: 64209"] I've responded to the second paragraph already (in agreement, sorry can't xp you again...too recent). But to address the first paragraph: I agree. Sometimes it's just "here's a random encounter". I'm TOTALLY fine (and frequently do) use monsters in that way. Not every monster needs to be used in a grander scheme nor do we need to pay attention to the "feelings" of a monster being important. ;) However, the way a monster is used versus the way a monster is written up is quite important, IMO. There should not be a monster whose purpose in its writeup is "this is a random enounter monster whose purpos is to be thrown at pcs." Actually, I take that back. They could even write that, and I'd be ok with it. That might even be a cool thing at the end of each monster entry, how they forsee the utilization of each monster in the context of adventures (might make things easy on DMs). I see no reason why it can't be both: a monster with a motivation and a rich ecology, and the fact that the motivation and rich ecology [I]just don't matter a whit[/I] in a given encounter. e.g. The players are too close to the eggs, or the hook horrors were recently attacked by similar looking humans (or any humans...we all look alike to hook horrors) or whatever so it becomes "monsters vs pcs, random encounter style". What a motivation and rich ecology provides is a background for a DM to understand how they might work in a more meaningful way. Having meaningless random fights is fun too. I don't think anyone would want to be given "The Big Book of Meaningless Random Fighting Creatures" though. [/QUOTE]

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