Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2971484" data-attributes="member: 26473">I also didn't see the line about &quot;more powerful than their occidental cousins&quot; - could you be looking at the 2e MM by chance?Re-reading your earlier post, I noticed something else:My personal opinion is that many gamers saw the word &quot;ogre&quot; in the name and assumed dumb brute, or perhaps slightly less dumb brute. In fact its intelligence ranges from eight to sixteen (average to exceptional), and as noted its abilities are not geared toward combat but toward infiltration and manipulation.I agree that some ogre magi would definitely use their abilities as you describe, particularly toward the lower end of the intelligence spectrum - on the other hand, I preferred to run the monster toward the higher end of the range, much like a less refined rakshasa.That brings up another point, raised by Hussar and ThirdWizard - other monsters fit the same niche. That's true, but I disagree with Mike Mearls (and by extension Hussar and ThirdWizard) that this is necessarily a bad thing. For me, the ogre mage reflected a oriental sensibility drawn from its oni roots, and so that's how I tended to play the monster, as distinct from more occidental monsters.I think there is too much focus on the stats, and not enough on how to play the monster so that it is distinctive from the other critters with similar abilities.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Shaman, post: 2971484, member: 26473"] I also didn't see the line about "more powerful than their occidental cousins" - could you be looking at the 2e [i]MM[/i] by chance? Re-reading your earlier post, I noticed something else:My personal opinion is that many gamers saw the word "ogre" in the name and assumed dumb brute, or perhaps slightly less dumb brute. In fact its intelligence ranges from eight to sixteen (average to exceptional), and as noted its abilities are not geared toward combat but toward infiltration and manipulation. I agree that some ogre magi would definitely use their abilities as you describe, particularly toward the lower end of the intelligence spectrum - on the other hand, I preferred to run the monster toward the higher end of the range, much like a less refined rakshasa. That brings up another point, raised by [b]Hussar[/b] and [b]ThirdWizard[/b] - other monsters fit the same niche. That's true, but I disagree with Mike Mearls (and by extension [b]Hussar[/b] and [b]ThirdWizard[/b]) that this is necessarily a bad thing. For me, the ogre mage reflected a oriental sensibility drawn from its oni roots, and so that's how I tended to play the monster, as distinct from more occidental monsters. I think there is too much focus on the stats, and not enough on how to [u]play[/u] the monster so that it is distinctive from the other critters with similar abilities. [/QUOTE]

Verification