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<blockquote data-quote="buzzard" data-source="post: 1402605" data-attributes="member: 3003">While I'm certainly in the '3rd is better camp' you simply aren't seeing what he's saying, or your are being disingenious. Monsters were simpler in 2nd Ed (or 1st for that matter). You even acknoledge that. It's not simply an issue of more available information, it's a matter of more information to assimilate to be able to run the monster in an effective fashion. For example, I ran a LG recently but hadn't looked up the Chuul in advance. I missed out on one of their special feats because I hadn't been careful enough. It wasn't a matter of memorizing to hit, HP, AC and saves. There's lots more tricky aspects of monsters these days. With grapple, power attack, and a wide variety of other abilites you simply have to know more details of the monsters to run them fairly. The challenges represented by the monsters takes all this into account, and if you blow it off CRs don't really mean much.How about a simple example-Giant Purple Worm: 2nd edition- if it hits you on a bite, it swallows whole and you have to cut your way out. 3rd Ed, it has improved grab on the bite and you end up in a grapple situation. Thus you need to know the grapple numbers. If you fail your grapple check you then get swallowed and have to cut your way out. Luckily 3.5 included grapple modifiers for all monsters rather that forcing you to calculate them if necessary. Can you in any way justify saying that you have to know less information in 3rd? I think not. Now I prefer 3rd in the above situation since it is more fair and give you a shot at not being swallowed. However by no means is it as simple. buzzard</blockquote>

[QUOTE="buzzard, post: 1402605, member: 3003"] While I'm certainly in the '3rd is better camp' you simply aren't seeing what he's saying, or your are being disingenious. Monsters were simpler in 2nd Ed (or 1st for that matter). You even acknoledge that. It's not simply an issue of more available information, it's a matter of more information to assimilate to be able to run the monster in an effective fashion. For example, I ran a LG recently but hadn't looked up the Chuul in advance. I missed out on one of their special feats because I hadn't been careful enough. It wasn't a matter of memorizing to hit, HP, AC and saves. There's lots more tricky aspects of monsters these days. With grapple, power attack, and a wide variety of other abilites you simply have to know more details of the monsters to run them fairly. The challenges represented by the monsters takes all this into account, and if you blow it off CRs don't really mean much. How about a simple example- Giant Purple Worm: 2nd edition- if it hits you on a bite, it swallows whole and you have to cut your way out. 3rd Ed, it has improved grab on the bite and you end up in a grapple situation. Thus you need to know the grapple numbers. If you fail your grapple check you then get swallowed and have to cut your way out. Luckily 3.5 included grapple modifiers for all monsters rather that forcing you to calculate them if necessary. Can you in any way justify saying that you have to know less information in 3rd? I think not. Now I prefer 3rd in the above situation since it is more fair and give you a shot at not being swallowed. However by no means is it as simple. buzzard [/QUOTE]

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