Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5892222" data-attributes="member: 2067">The 4e MM has an entry on bears. There, it has a paragraph headed &quot;BEAR LORE,&quot; that lets DMs know that PC's who make a DC 15 Nature check can know that a bear craps in the woods (well, that it lives in the woods, but y'know).And if you make a DC 20 check, you know that they use their claws to kill you!&quot;Does a bear live in the woods?!&quot;&quot;Make a DC 15 Nature check!&quot;&quot;Is the Pope Catholic?&quot;&quot;Make a DC 15 Religion check!&quot;This seems to me like pointless fluff for the sake of fluff, not useful gameplay material. If the party's in the woods and a bear shows up and starts clawing people, I don't think anyone needs to make a skill check to get the gist of that scenario. Using bears instead as support for some more iconic monsters (perhaps including bear stats with your werebear when you're detailing lycanthropes, or including them with a group of humans that use BEARS AS CAVALRY or whatever) both enhances the iconic monster by making it more instantly usable, and enhances the bear by putting it in context and not wasting wordcount on some artificial need to add Lore to every entry in the MM. Thus, Bear Lore is an example of how not every monster is worthy of detailed information. The mimic probably falls into this camp, too. It's a trap monster designed to jump out and harass passersby (and sometimes be smart, friendly, and useful). It doesn't need a detailed entry and speculation about its mating habits. It needs to serve its role as a trap-monster, and be put in a larger context.And, of course, those who really want to make bears or mimics the center of their adventures can do so. The game just assumes you'd rather focus on things like dragons and drow and kuo-toa and necromancers and whatever.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 5892222, member: 2067"] The 4e MM has an entry on bears. There, it has a paragraph headed "BEAR LORE," that lets DMs know that PC's who make a DC 15 Nature check can know that a bear craps in the woods (well, that it lives in the woods, but y'know). And if you make a DC 20 check, you know that they use their claws to kill you! "Does a bear live in the woods?!" "Make a DC 15 Nature check!" "Is the Pope Catholic?" "Make a DC 15 Religion check!" This seems to me like pointless fluff for the sake of fluff, not useful gameplay material. If the party's in the woods and a bear shows up and starts clawing people, I don't think anyone needs to make a skill check to get the gist of that scenario. Using bears instead as support for some more iconic monsters (perhaps including bear stats with your werebear when you're detailing lycanthropes, or including them with a group of humans that use BEARS AS CAVALRY or whatever) both enhances the iconic monster by making it more instantly usable, and enhances the bear by putting it in context and not wasting wordcount on some artificial need to add Lore to every entry in the MM. Thus, Bear Lore is an example of how not every monster is worthy of detailed information. The mimic probably falls into this camp, too. It's a trap monster designed to jump out and harass passersby (and sometimes be smart, friendly, and useful). It doesn't need a detailed entry and speculation about its mating habits. It needs to serve its role as a trap-monster, and be put in a larger context. And, of course, those who really want to make bears or mimics the center of their adventures can do so. The game just assumes you'd rather focus on things like dragons and drow and kuo-toa and necromancers and whatever. [/QUOTE]

Verification