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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 4278292" data-attributes="member: 5143">I can tell you that WOTC did a lot of polls and market research regarding this.I also have a LOT of personal experience regarding what type of games get run out there.  Just because I've had SO many different DMs in a couple of different cities.I can tell you that the average DM has very little time(3 or less hours per week) to plan out their game.  That is too little time to come up with new monsters every week unless that is almost all the work you are doing to prepare your game.Running an interesting encounter in 4e requires a variety of different roles in the same encounter.  Kobold Brute and Kobold Leader wouldn't do.  If you want a Kobold encounter, you need a Kobold Skirmisher and a Lurker wouldn't be too bad either.  And that's just running a Kobold encounter once.Creating a monster in 4e is not easy.  Not from scratch.  I certainly wouldn't want to do it.  I mean, it's easy to create a shell of a monster without a problem.  Take the stats for a 5th level skirmisher, call it a Kobold and you are done.  Of course, to give that monster flavor while not making it overpowered requires some real thinking and real work.No, what I'm saying is that a company that makes chocolates puts out a number of varieties of white chocolate, a number of varieties of dark chocolate, and a number of varieties of milk chocolate as those are their best selling products and what the majority of people coming into their store ask for.You are suggesting that they should be selling more gumdrops and wondering why everyone likes all these chocolates.When I create an adventure, the process is simple:-Find a problem for the PCs to solve(kidnapped princess, undead infestation, flood caused by water spirits, etc)-Find an interesting twist to the story(the mayor is secretly the one raising the undead, the princesss agreed to be kidnapped as part of a bigger plot, etc)-Figure out the encounters that the PCs will be fighting which is a couple step process:a) Look in the appendix of the MM at the level the PCs are and figure out what kind of monsters are around that levelb) See if any of the monsters might make an interesting twist to the storyc) If I can't find a good monster then go up or down a level or 2d) Pick a couple of creatures from the list in order to create a balanced encounter.  If I am missing a good creature for a role that I'd like in the combat then use the increasing or decreasing level rules on another creature in order to fit it in.e) Find an interesting location for the encounters to take place in-String the encounters together in a way that makes sense given the plot:  First the PCs fight some undead, then after following some clues fight some cultists who worship Orcus, then they find a clue that leads them to fight the mayor and the most powerful undead he has created along with his guards.-Fill in the details(where the clues are found, exactly what they say, make up some NPCs who they will meet, etc)And the last step(since it takes the longest) is almost always the one that gets put off until I'm essentially making it up on the fly.For this process, however, I never need to know the weight of any of the creatures.  Nor much about them other than: What kind of creature are they and where do they come from?  It's fairly easy to make up an excuse to use almost any monster if I want to.</blockquote>

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