Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What Monsters got nerfed from early D&D/AD&D to now/5e
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 7644439" data-attributes="member: 21169"><p>I like combat to be tense, exciting and allow all the players to meaningfully contribute.</p><p></p><p>Binary, all-or-nothing powers make this less likely. That's been my experience, not just across multiple editions of D&D, but in other rpgs as well. A common situation in D&D is a monster that is very hard to defeat but becomes uninteresting if the PCs have access to a particular spell or item such as <em>Protection from Evil</em> or magic weapons.</p><p></p><p>Take a monster that is immune to non-magic weapons. If all the martial PCs have magic weapons, which is often the case in mid to high level play, then the immunity is irrelevant. If some martial PCs lack such weapons then they don't get to contribute.</p><p></p><p>Here's a few examples from actual play:</p><p>1) In a 3e game we were preparing to attack a nest of vampire spawn. We would have been very vulnerable to their Domination power but we cast <em>Protection From Evil</em> on every party member rendering us immune. This turned an impossible or very hard encounter into a relatively easy and imo not very interesting one.</p><p>2) Again in 3e, the party were surprised by an umber hulk. Its confusion ability caused, not merely a TPK, but a boring TPK with most of the players unable to control their own characters. If the PCs had cast <em>Protection from Evil</em> otoh as in the example above the encounter would have been trivial.</p><p>3) In an 8th level 2e game a multiclass magic-user/cleric was the only PC in the party who could fight a ghost, using defensive spells to make himself immune to its attacks. The other players had nothing to do while he solo-ed it.</p><p>4) In a 5e game we fought a dragon construct in its lair. It had no relevant immunities and was defeated by having its hit points reduced to zero. The fight was a very close run thing, and extremely memorable, involving many interesting tactical choices. It wasn't determined by a single spell or ability and every PC made a significant contribution. Even the bard.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Doug McCrae, post: 7644439, member: 21169"] I like combat to be tense, exciting and allow all the players to meaningfully contribute. Binary, all-or-nothing powers make this less likely. That's been my experience, not just across multiple editions of D&D, but in other rpgs as well. A common situation in D&D is a monster that is very hard to defeat but becomes uninteresting if the PCs have access to a particular spell or item such as [I]Protection from Evil[/I] or magic weapons. Take a monster that is immune to non-magic weapons. If all the martial PCs have magic weapons, which is often the case in mid to high level play, then the immunity is irrelevant. If some martial PCs lack such weapons then they don't get to contribute. Here's a few examples from actual play: 1) In a 3e game we were preparing to attack a nest of vampire spawn. We would have been very vulnerable to their Domination power but we cast [I]Protection From Evil[/I] on every party member rendering us immune. This turned an impossible or very hard encounter into a relatively easy and imo not very interesting one. 2) Again in 3e, the party were surprised by an umber hulk. Its confusion ability caused, not merely a TPK, but a boring TPK with most of the players unable to control their own characters. If the PCs had cast [I]Protection from Evil[/I] otoh as in the example above the encounter would have been trivial. 3) In an 8th level 2e game a multiclass magic-user/cleric was the only PC in the party who could fight a ghost, using defensive spells to make himself immune to its attacks. The other players had nothing to do while he solo-ed it. 4) In a 5e game we fought a dragon construct in its lair. It had no relevant immunities and was defeated by having its hit points reduced to zero. The fight was a very close run thing, and extremely memorable, involving many interesting tactical choices. It wasn't determined by a single spell or ability and every PC made a significant contribution. Even the bard. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What Monsters got nerfed from early D&D/AD&D to now/5e
Top