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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gothmog" data-source="post: 233146" data-attributes="member: 317">Thanks for all the good advice so far folks.  I am a big believer in "adjusting" monster stats so players don't really know what to expect, and while beasties like this can surprise them occasionally, often they figure out pretty quickly what the creature's AC is by their attack rolls.  One player even goes to far as to tally total damage done to the critter so they can have an idea how many hp the darn thing has! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f621.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":mad:" title="Mad    :mad:"  data-smilie="4"data-shortname=":mad:" /> Anyway, over the last few days I have been thinking about the situation, and have come up with a few ideas.  1.  Don't let the players know their exact hp totals, AC, skill modifiers, etc.  Instead, describe in detail actions and their results.2.  If someone asks how badly injured they are, give them a ballpark estimate- "you feel battered and bruised, about 1/2 gone" or "you are on your last legs, and the next blow will probably finish you".  Same thing goes for when they look to see how injured an NPC or monster is.3.  When describing magic items, give a verbal rather than quantitative description.  Instead of saying a +1 keen longsword, describe it as a "blade that often bites deeply with a keen edge, and radiates moderately strong magic."  Let them roll damage for their attacks, but figure in the damage modifiers secretly.4.  For skill ranks, don't tell someone they have a +12 in Hide, tell them they are an Expert at Hide.  Maybe something like rank 1-5 (Novice), 6-10 (Competent), 11-15 (Expert) and 16-20 (Master) of given skills.  This way they can roughly guage their chances of success without number-crunching too much.  After all, there are not probably many of us in real life who think "Assuming this is a moderate difficult task, I would guess I have a 70% chance to sneak up on Bob and scare the snot out of him."  Instead, we probably think "I'm pretty lightfooted, so I bet I can scare Bob" or "I'm such a klutz, I'll be lucky to get behind Bob without knocking the lamp over" I have used #1, 2, and 3 in a previous campaign (2E) with some new players a few years ago who didn't want to mess with trying to calculate all the numbers and modifiers and keep them straignt.  Although the game only lasted about 10 adventures before scheduling difficulties got in the way, those players seemed to react to situations in a much more realistic fashion rather than having pages of stats in front of them.  It was a lot of fun- and it makes me think that maybe the thing that leads to outlandish player tactics and the "kill anything that moves" attitude is overfamiliarity with the rules and a preoccupation with the probabilities.  I know these are some pretty radical ideas, and when I did use #1, 2, and 3 a few years ago, it was moderately more work for the DM, but even though they were newbies, it was some of the most in-depth roleplaying I have ever done.  Any thoughts?  Or have these ideas branded me a heretic? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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