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<blockquote data-quote="Lonely Tylenol" data-source="post: 3916809" data-attributes="member: 18549">It seems to me that the 4E mechanics are turning what was a mechanical problem in 3E (Xmas trees) into a flavour problem in 4E.&nbsp; So instead of needing to have X item to kill a particular sort of monster, you can just kill it, which as you say, may blur the low/high fantasy boundary.&nbsp; But the fix, I think, is fairly easy to implement.&nbsp; Using your example, let's say that you need a stake made out of a certain type of rare wood to kill the vampire.&nbsp; Now the weapon you need is no longer a magic item, but a plot device.&nbsp; There will be no vampire killing until the players figure out how to get their hands on such a stake.&nbsp; The vampire is totally scary because they know they can't kill him until they find the stake, and so they are vulnerable.&nbsp; I think that most monsters or NPCs that are supposed to be hard to kill can be quickly tweaked in a similar way, so that no matter how tough you are, they're still a pain in the butt to deal with.Another fix is this: don't fight vampires.&nbsp; If you want to preserve a certain low fantasy style of game, set up the challenges so that the players never feel like superheroes butchering a bunch of monsters that mere mortals would flee in terror from.&nbsp; Fight goblins, giants, dire animals, and other more mundane challenges.&nbsp; This isn't an ideal fix, because it does constrain the DM quite a bit, but perhaps a viable one.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lonely Tylenol, post: 3916809, member: 18549"] It seems to me that the 4E mechanics are turning what was a mechanical problem in 3E (Xmas trees) into a flavour problem in 4E. So instead of needing to have X item to kill a particular sort of monster, you can just kill it, which as you say, may blur the low/high fantasy boundary. But the fix, I think, is fairly easy to implement. Using your example, let's say that you need a stake made out of a certain type of rare wood to kill the vampire. Now the weapon you need is no longer a magic item, but a [i]plot device[/i]. There will be no vampire killing until the players figure out how to get their hands on such a stake. The vampire is totally scary because they know they can't kill him until they find the stake, and so they are vulnerable. I think that most monsters or NPCs that are supposed to be hard to kill can be quickly tweaked in a similar way, so that no matter how tough you are, they're still a pain in the butt to deal with. Another fix is this: don't fight vampires. If you want to preserve a certain low fantasy style of game, set up the challenges so that the players never feel like superheroes butchering a bunch of monsters that mere mortals would flee in terror from. Fight goblins, giants, dire animals, and other more mundane challenges. This isn't an ideal fix, because it does constrain the DM quite a bit, but perhaps a viable one. [/QUOTE]

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