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<blockquote data-quote="eyebeams" data-source="post: 2969550" data-attributes="member: 9225">The only problem I see is that most of these developments are based on the needs of single encounters instead of multiple encounters or game sessions. The Orge Mage redesign was great for a single tactical encounter, but it didn't cover abilities meant to lead people to ambushes and the like. The classic ogre mage encounter is really where the disguised O-M charms a party member and leads everyone into a trap set by their dumb, standard ogre cousins.Unfortunately, there's a tendency to favour single encounters because it's easier to judge a design based on that than any other criterion. Other considerations are &quot;soft&quot; development skills that were deemphasized in favour of balance based on hard mathematical and design principles. We now know, of course, that many of these &quot;fact-based&quot; designs involved a wee bit more guesstimation that previously thought.I think that the best solution might be to go the other way around. Design monsters, items and so forth for raw single-encounter qualities *first*, then elaborate the design to include other factors. Certainly, I like the Ogre Mage redesign as a starting piont better than the original.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="eyebeams, post: 2969550, member: 9225"] The only problem I see is that most of these developments are based on the needs of single encounters instead of multiple encounters or game sessions. The Orge Mage redesign was great for a single tactical encounter, but it didn't cover abilities meant to lead people to ambushes and the like. The classic ogre mage encounter is really where the disguised O-M charms a party member and leads everyone into a trap set by their dumb, standard ogre cousins. Unfortunately, there's a tendency to favour single encounters because it's easier to judge a design based on that than any other criterion. Other considerations are "soft" development skills that were deemphasized in favour of balance based on hard mathematical and design principles. We now know, of course, that many of these "fact-based" designs involved a wee bit more guesstimation that previously thought. I think that the best solution might be to go the other way around. Design monsters, items and so forth for raw single-encounter qualities *first*, then elaborate the design to include other factors. Certainly, I like the Ogre Mage redesign as a starting piont better than the original. [/QUOTE]

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