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Why I hate the Hydra: —and other dumbed down 4E monsters—
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<blockquote data-quote="fissionessence" data-source="post: 4261240" data-attributes="member: 63357"><p><strong>Why I hate the Hydra: —and other dumbed down 4E monsters—</strong></p><p></p><p>I remember reading a while back in an interview (or maybe I heard it in a podcast interview) that one of the guys designing monsters was really excited because he didn't have to be tied down to static monster building rules, and he had more freedom to just make up a cool power and stick it in as something exciting. </p><p></p><p>This got me pretty stoked about the potential for monsters, but after glancing through the Monster Manual I'm pretty disappointed. I just did a quick glance at a few of my favorites so far, but among the huge let-downs are the hydra and lycanthropes. </p><p></p><p>The hydra is just a mass of hit points like any other monster now. The only statistical references to it having more than one head are that it gets an attack for each head, and stun and daze effects just 'stun' or 'daze' one head (not all of them). What happened to cutting off each head one by one, and hoping you can take out the rest before the previous ones sprout back up into two? Isn't that like the point of the hydra?</p><p></p><p>The other crappy one is the lycanthrope. They only included the wererat and the werewolf (and only one version of each). I guess it's okay that they didn't have room for weretigers, werebears, etc., but it would have been nice to have instructions on how to build your own were-creatures . . . although it looks to be really really easy considering how dumbed down they are. Here's the werewolf's 'change shape' ability:</p><p></p><p><strong>Change Shape</strong> (minor; at-will) <> <strong>Polymorph</strong></p><p>A werewolf can alter its physical form to appear as a gray wolf or </p><p>a unique human (see Change Shape, page 280). It cannot use its </p><p>bite attack in human form and cannot make greatclub attacks in </p><p>wolf form.</p><p></p><p>The 'change shape' entry (page 280) basically just says that the creature's form changes, but its statistics remain identical.</p><p></p><p>What a crappy lycanthrope!</p><p></p><p>Anyway, what are others' thoughts on these monsters, and are there any other monsters you've spotted that look weak from a design perspective?</p><p></p><p>~ fissionessence</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="fissionessence, post: 4261240, member: 63357"] [b]Why I hate the Hydra: —and other dumbed down 4E monsters—[/b] I remember reading a while back in an interview (or maybe I heard it in a podcast interview) that one of the guys designing monsters was really excited because he didn't have to be tied down to static monster building rules, and he had more freedom to just make up a cool power and stick it in as something exciting. This got me pretty stoked about the potential for monsters, but after glancing through the Monster Manual I'm pretty disappointed. I just did a quick glance at a few of my favorites so far, but among the huge let-downs are the hydra and lycanthropes. The hydra is just a mass of hit points like any other monster now. The only statistical references to it having more than one head are that it gets an attack for each head, and stun and daze effects just 'stun' or 'daze' one head (not all of them). What happened to cutting off each head one by one, and hoping you can take out the rest before the previous ones sprout back up into two? Isn't that like the point of the hydra? The other crappy one is the lycanthrope. They only included the wererat and the werewolf (and only one version of each). I guess it's okay that they didn't have room for weretigers, werebears, etc., but it would have been nice to have instructions on how to build your own were-creatures . . . although it looks to be really really easy considering how dumbed down they are. Here's the werewolf's 'change shape' ability: [b]Change Shape[/b] (minor; at-will) <> [b]Polymorph[/b] A werewolf can alter its physical form to appear as a gray wolf or a unique human (see Change Shape, page 280). It cannot use its bite attack in human form and cannot make greatclub attacks in wolf form. The 'change shape' entry (page 280) basically just says that the creature's form changes, but its statistics remain identical. What a crappy lycanthrope! Anyway, what are others' thoughts on these monsters, and are there any other monsters you've spotted that look weak from a design perspective? ~ fissionessence [/QUOTE]
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Why I hate the Hydra: —and other dumbed down 4E monsters—
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