Wow... Encounters are quickly made.

[GoodKingJayIII]

Guys, it was very easy to prep encounters in 3.5 if you used out-of-the-box Monster Manual creatures. Which is what people are doing now for 4E. Wait until you start statting NPCs and then tell me how easy it is.

I'll be building 99.9% of my NPCs as monsters, so I don't think that'll be an issue. Only very important (and very nasty) NPCs will be built with character classes. I plan on building my own monsters, but I don't factor that time into game prep, just system creation time. Encounter design time on average should go way down for me.

 

[Blackeagle]

Guys, it was very easy to prep encounters in 3.5 if you used out-of-the-box Monster Manual creatures.

Of course some 3e monsters aren't even runnable out of the box (dragons, for instance).

 

[Evenglare]

To the guy who was remarking on not using out of the box monsters ... Its rediculously easy to level them up OR down. Pretty much one paragraph in the books tells you how. And NPC's and Monster creation are so easy it should be illeagle.

 

[ForbidenMaster]

Guys, it was very easy to prep encounters in 3.5 if you used out-of-the-box Monster Manual creatures. Which is what people are doing now for 4E. Wait until you start statting NPCs and then tell me how easy it is.

Even thats takes 1/10th of the time it took in 3.x. The base system for creating NPCs and Monsters just works faster. Its that simple.

 

[Nifft]

4E seems to be producing a shift in the zeitgeist from monster/NPC design being the preferred expression of gearhead creativity, to encounter design. Interesting.

Insightful hong makes me nervous.

, -- N

 

[Fifth Element]

That's great if you have 4 hours to spare. Not everyone does.

Indeed. My post was facetious, and my smiley combo was my attempt at showing how I felt after the ordeal: like I would rather be shot in the head than have to do it again.

As for using monsters "out of the box", there's only so many times you can do that before they become old hat. Keeping it interesting over a number of years requires a lot of work in 3E.

 

[Fifth Element]

4E seems to be producing a shift in the zeitgeist from monster/NPC design being the preferred expression of gearhead creativity, to encounter design. Interesting.

Indeed. I think it's already affecting my DMing, even in 3.5. My dragon/dragon shaman encounter was designed as an encounter, not just as NPCs. Though it was the NPC design that took the time.

 

[hectorse]

Indeed. My post was facetious, and my smiley combo was my attempt at showing how I felt after the ordeal: like I would rather be shot in the head than have to do it again.

As for using monsters "out of the box", there's only so many times you can do that before they become old hat. Keeping it interesting over a number of years requires a lot of work in 3E.

I got your smiley combo and it rocked!