Word of Mearls: Official Player races will not get Oversized Weapons. Forked Thread

How do you feel about this?



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Well then, if the monster races were indeed meant for npc creation, then can someone enlighten me as to why the heck they did not give the kobold darkvision?

Because darkvision isn't a function of the race per se, but a function of the individual monsters that comprise the kobold race in the MM?

Not everything they share in common necessarily carries over to the racial description. That's inherent in how monsters are designed as monsters, as well as how they are designed as NPCs. If the DM needs a monster to have darkvision, he just gives it to them. There's no hard and fast rule for that, except 'Give the monster the tools it needs to do its job.'

And if it's an above ground/day light encounter, darkvision is unnecessary, so why bother noting it?

That said, I feel it's an oversight, but such a minor one that it's not exactly a thorn in any half-assed DM's side.
 


Since all you need to generate new monstrous NPCs is a good look at the stat blocks of existing members of that monstrous race, I took the appendix write-ups as rough draft PC race stat blocks, obviously not playtested (or, in many cases, even finished), but there as a sort of "Here's what we have so far; feel free to run with it. Subject to revision" to allow people to play a wider variety of races until a good inventory of them built up in the published materials.

Isn't that pretty much how they were being represented before the books even came out? I recall hearing that there would be write-ups for some monsters, but they would be incomplete and not heavily tested, but given as an option for people who *really* wanted more choices from the get-go.


Anyways, I have no problem with different rules for pcs and npcs. It's better than having all the powers of a monster race but having ECL's which can end up gimping a character more than they could ever benefit from a set of racial powers.
 



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