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<blockquote data-quote="Thasmodious" data-source="post: 4524045" data-attributes="member: 63272">Andor asked me to quote a page number in the 4e DMG where it stated the DM could houserule.&nbsp; I'm not confusing anything.&nbsp; Encouragement to forego RAW for what works is littered throughout the 4e books.&nbsp; Reflavoring powers, houseruling, making things up on the fly...and various tools exist to help you do that in a way that gels with the system (pg. 42 DMG being the biggie).I agree completely with this, its sound DMing.&nbsp; If the players don't know the rules they operate under, or they constantly shift, the game seems random and they victims of the whims of the DM.&nbsp; The rules THEY operate under.&nbsp; They don't get to look under the hood to see how the DM operates.&nbsp; The important thing for the DM, is the same as for the fantasy author, to maintain internal consistency.&nbsp; The DM needs to know how Graz'zt teleports, what limits it might have, if it funcions just like the ritual, but without components and time, etc.&nbsp; And he needs to apply that consistently.&nbsp; But he isn't restricted from setting those rules in the first place, even if its on the fly.&nbsp; As long as its consistent the next time, verisimilitude is maintained.&nbsp;&nbsp; WordThere I disagree, except for the part about me being wonderful.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The idea that an epic level demon lord can only do, throughout his entire day, throughout the millenia as he hatches his evil, cosmos spanning schemes, that the only things he is capable of doing are the few combat/encounter powers listed in his MM entry.&nbsp; That is so clearly not the intent.&nbsp; The evidence is in the simplicity of the stat blocks and the design style throughout the edition, which fully encourages the DM to, well, DM the game.&nbsp; More direct evidence is coming in the Draconomicon or whatever its called this time around.&nbsp; Undoubtedly the book will contain whole chapters on things dragons do when they aren't slaughtering parties.&nbsp; The stat block is needed for a fight, it is not the end all be all of the creature.&nbsp; Your kobold wyrmpriest or an orc Eye of Grummsh can perform rituals, your epic demon lords find some way to travel between planes and to show up when the PCs least expect him.&nbsp; It doesn't matter that those things aren't in their stat blocks.&nbsp; The section of the DMG detailing NPCs has this as #10 on their steps to building NPCs:</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Thasmodious, post: 4524045, member: 63272"] Andor asked me to quote a page number in the 4e DMG where it stated the DM could houserule. I'm not confusing anything. Encouragement to forego RAW for what works is littered throughout the 4e books. Reflavoring powers, houseruling, making things up on the fly...and various tools exist to help you do that in a way that gels with the system (pg. 42 DMG being the biggie). I agree completely with this, its sound DMing. If the players don't know the rules they operate under, or they constantly shift, the game seems random and they victims of the whims of the DM. The rules THEY operate under. They don't get to look under the hood to see how the DM operates. The important thing for the DM, is the same as for the fantasy author, to maintain internal consistency. The DM needs to know how Graz'zt teleports, what limits it might have, if it funcions just like the ritual, but without components and time, etc. And he needs to apply that consistently. But he isn't restricted from setting those rules in the first place, even if its on the fly. As long as its consistent the next time, verisimilitude is maintained. Word There I disagree, except for the part about me being wonderful. :) The idea that an epic level demon lord can only do, throughout his entire day, throughout the millenia as he hatches his evil, cosmos spanning schemes, that the only things he is capable of doing are the few combat/encounter powers listed in his MM entry. That is so clearly not the intent. The evidence is in the simplicity of the stat blocks and the design style throughout the edition, which fully encourages the DM to, well, DM the game. More direct evidence is coming in the Draconomicon or whatever its called this time around. Undoubtedly the book will contain whole chapters on things dragons do when they aren't slaughtering parties. The stat block is needed for a fight, it is not the end all be all of the creature. Your kobold wyrmpriest or an orc Eye of Grummsh can perform rituals, your epic demon lords find some way to travel between planes and to show up when the PCs least expect him. It doesn't matter that those things aren't in their stat blocks. The section of the DMG detailing NPCs has this as #10 on their steps to building NPCs: [/QUOTE]

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