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<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 9336085" data-attributes="member: 58172"><p>Organizing character features into "feats" with one feat of design space per level, is doable enough.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The tricky part is demonstrating transparency between player Level and monster Challenge.</p><p></p><p>What makes it tricky is, monsters tend to have more hit points than characters. "Solo" boss monsters are more like three to five different monsters functioning as a single monster. The same is true for "Elite" monsters but less extreme.</p><p></p><p>Thus the equivalent monster Level is lower than the Hit Points suggest. The Hit Dice cannot be taken at face value with regard to Level, and merely quantify the amount of Hit Points.</p><p></p><p>The actual tell for what Level a monster is, is its Proficiency bonus. Many (most?) monsters in Mordenkainen Presents have a Challenge and equivalent Level that are the same number. When determining the Level from the Proficiency, it normally is the same number Level, but with Hit Points equal to "d12 Hit Dice + 5 Constitution", rather than "d8 Hit Dice + 0 Constitution".</p><p></p><p>In other words, when determining Level, the monster Challenge is more like <em>Barbarian</em> Levels, with the corresponding Proficiency and Hit Points, and combat competence.</p><p></p><p>Note again, a Solo is more like several Barbarians put together. Maybe a way to think about Solos and Elites, is they are like a player character that has a pet, sidekick, or summoning with it, whence more Hit Points and more attacks. But it is still at the lower level that tends to correlate with the Proficiency.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The reason for the high Hit Points of monsters is to stabilize the combat game engine. By making the monster lower Level (with lower Proficiency), the monster is less likely to one-shot insta-kill a player character. Likewise, by having more Hit Points, the group of player characters are less likely to one-shot insta-kill a monster that they are ganging up on.</p><p></p><p>This abundance of Hit Points makes combat less swingy. There is attrition, and players and monsters get a chance to perceive their Hit Points dwindle before deciding what to do about it. The tactical game is more solid. But the "bag of Hit Points" can sometimes make combat feel like a slog, especially at the high tiers. Sometimes players want to face more dangerous opponents (higher Level) but with speedier resolution (fewer Hit Points). The DM can tinker with Level and Hit Points to suit to taste between "rocket tag" and "bag of Hit Points".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 9336085, member: 58172"] Organizing character features into "feats" with one feat of design space per level, is doable enough. The tricky part is demonstrating transparency between player Level and monster Challenge. What makes it tricky is, monsters tend to have more hit points than characters. "Solo" boss monsters are more like three to five different monsters functioning as a single monster. The same is true for "Elite" monsters but less extreme. Thus the equivalent monster Level is lower than the Hit Points suggest. The Hit Dice cannot be taken at face value with regard to Level, and merely quantify the amount of Hit Points. The actual tell for what Level a monster is, is its Proficiency bonus. Many (most?) monsters in Mordenkainen Presents have a Challenge and equivalent Level that are the same number. When determining the Level from the Proficiency, it normally is the same number Level, but with Hit Points equal to "d12 Hit Dice + 5 Constitution", rather than "d8 Hit Dice + 0 Constitution". In other words, when determining Level, the monster Challenge is more like [I]Barbarian[/I] Levels, with the corresponding Proficiency and Hit Points, and combat competence. Note again, a Solo is more like several Barbarians put together. Maybe a way to think about Solos and Elites, is they are like a player character that has a pet, sidekick, or summoning with it, whence more Hit Points and more attacks. But it is still at the lower level that tends to correlate with the Proficiency. The reason for the high Hit Points of monsters is to stabilize the combat game engine. By making the monster lower Level (with lower Proficiency), the monster is less likely to one-shot insta-kill a player character. Likewise, by having more Hit Points, the group of player characters are less likely to one-shot insta-kill a monster that they are ganging up on. This abundance of Hit Points makes combat less swingy. There is attrition, and players and monsters get a chance to perceive their Hit Points dwindle before deciding what to do about it. The tactical game is more solid. But the "bag of Hit Points" can sometimes make combat feel like a slog, especially at the high tiers. Sometimes players want to face more dangerous opponents (higher Level) but with speedier resolution (fewer Hit Points). The DM can tinker with Level and Hit Points to suit to taste between "rocket tag" and "bag of Hit Points". [/QUOTE]
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