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What 4th edition has done for my thinking - Blogs - Loremaster
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Amazing Triangle

What 4th edition has done for my thinking

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Amazing Triangle
, 12-01-2010 at 04:28 PM (2276 Views)
I realized this while talking to an old friend. We were discussing a BBEG he had for his campaign that I was thinking of using in my game. Problem was his villain was 3.5 and well only in my friend's head. So while talking about his BBEG I said what would he be known for? He answered with, "The old Warlock class." Now this struck me as weird. Why didn't he say it was a power that was his signature go to move. So I pressed him for more. What I got then was that it was some kind of Warlock|Psionic Creature. This creature who I remember being this total bad mother, had no real memorable qualities other than he had a strange weakness. He was super powerful but there was nothing that gave him that power. This discussion highlighted for me the quintecential difference between these editions. It seems to me that 4 edition monster design is more about "what is this monster all about?" where in 3.5 it was "What classes have abilities that will help him be powerful?" This kept my friend from being able to truly help me with his old BBEG. It was because he himself had never thought about what singularly made this BBEG what he was. He painted his villain with such a broad brush, that there was no reason to be afraid of him. His villain had no signature move that you could see and go "oh no that is BBEG." This to me is what makes that iconic villain, you recognize him from what he is doing.
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  1. ERJHolton's Avatar
    I have to admit that it is something I like about monster design in fourth edition as well. Looking at what is currently published, as well as some modest work I've done myself, it does feel like the designs are all meant to try and capture the essence of the various creatures, without having to resort to adding a grab-bag of barely-used abilities or a slack handful of caster levels to make them feel rounded.
  2. Scrivener of Doom's Avatar
    Very true.

    I remember in 3.5E that often an idea for a BBEG would come from a particular prestige class. Creating the BBEG then became an exercise in building the NPC legally, properly accounting for all of the pre-requisites for a particular prestige class.

    Funnily enough, I still use 3.5E prestige classes (and spells) for inspiration. However, now I'm not looking for how to build the BBEG legally but how to make it interesting. It's a better way to think!
  3. gaming tonic's Avatar
    From the Gamemaster point of view, 4E is so much cleaner and easier from encountering building to actually running the encounters and experience point rewards. I look for inspiration where I find it and save lots of old materials and buy old materials with that in mind. No monster caster levels or silly abilities that are never coming up is smart design.