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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7886651" data-attributes="member: 4937">Well, it wasn't completely meaningless. It suffered from being something that had to be estimated, and it wasn't always estimated well. But I would argue that it was better than the "Monster Level" system that proceeded it in most ways, and it was certainly more transparent. The one aspect of the older Monster Level system I preferred is that it had a more objective means of estimating CR. This is true, but it's one of those things that is both a negative and a positive. While it's true that different combinations of attacks and defenses could produce wildly different difficulties, that is something that goes back deep into D&D's history. Don't have a cleric? Undead that might be a pushover are difficult to deadly. Don't have a ranged attackers? Good luck with a dragon in an open area. Or consider a game like Nethack that is based on D&D. How tough is a poisonous monster? Well, do you have poison resistance? How tough is a cockatrice? Well, do you have reliable ranged attacks? Whether or not you have the right spell or the right defense for the situation determines whether you can face roll the creature or need to run away/get away fast.The alternative though to having all that is a lack of tactical complexity. Remove all those edges and advantages which the party or the monster might have, and everything becomes a straight up damage race and the winner is the one that can simply burn through the opposition's stack of hit points the fastest. The result of that is a certain sameness that will get tiring in the long run.People in the thread asserted I needed to pay more attention to "suggested wealth by level" or carefully craft NPCs to threaten players.  I didn't really.  All I need to do is pay attention to what the party can or can't do.  I don't really have to worry about being "too easy".  Let the party face roll the opposition from time to time, just to get perspective on how powerful they've become.  All I have to do is be careful to not throw something at them which isn't fair.  In my experience, difficulty will come all on its own, when the party makes a bad choice or the dice have a run against them.  I don't really have to push it that hard to make things challenging.   Sooner or later they'll try to beat down something they should have kited or evaded, or separate the party, or put the squishy characters ahead of the meat shields, or try to kite something they should beat down, or fail a saving throw at the wrong time, or lose party cohesion, or panic, and then "moderate" difficulty becomes "hard" really quickly.</blockquote>

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