Mike Shea

winter eladrin so this like you know kind of cold winter eladrin that did four damage with its bow it had like a single bow attack and the because its dex was terrible it was a low to hit and it did four damage it was like a d6 it's like a d6 plus one And I was like, this is a CR-11 monster. He should be doing cones of cold every time he fires that bow. Why is it that?

And the answer really was because the art had a bow in it, and so we needed to add a bow to the stat block. I don't think he said that on the show, but that is almost certainly what happened. The art had a bow, so the monster needs a bow. But in the design, it was like, well, the expectation is that you're not going to use the bow, right?

And the answer really was because the art had a bow in it, and so we needed to add a bow to the stat block. I don't think he said that on the show, but that is almost certainly what happened. The art had a bow, so the monster needs a bow. But in the design, it was like, well, the expectation is that you're not going to use the bow, right?

And the answer really was because the art had a bow in it, and so we needed to add a bow to the stat block. I don't think he said that on the show, but that is almost certainly what happened. The art had a bow, so the monster needs a bow. But in the design, it was like, well, the expectation is that you're not going to use the bow, right?

And the mind is like, well, then why the hell is the bow there? Like, why make your stat block more complicated with a thing that is like, oh, wrong, stupid DM, you used the wrong thing. And that has now propagated. I don't think I could take any credit for this at all, other than maybe pointing out this weird discrepancy that the new way of doing challenge ratings is no matter what path you pick,

And the mind is like, well, then why the hell is the bow there? Like, why make your stat block more complicated with a thing that is like, oh, wrong, stupid DM, you used the wrong thing. And that has now propagated. I don't think I could take any credit for this at all, other than maybe pointing out this weird discrepancy that the new way of doing challenge ratings is no matter what path you pick,

And the mind is like, well, then why the hell is the bow there? Like, why make your stat block more complicated with a thing that is like, oh, wrong, stupid DM, you used the wrong thing. And that has now propagated. I don't think I could take any credit for this at all, other than maybe pointing out this weird discrepancy that the new way of doing challenge ratings is no matter what path you pick,

through the actions of a monster, it will hit on par for its challenge rating. And that would be the equivalent of the Winter Eladrin does Cones of Cold every time it fires its bow, right? That if there's a bow in there, it doesn't matter that the Winter Eladrin has all these other features that do damage and status effects and everything like that.

through the actions of a monster, it will hit on par for its challenge rating. And that would be the equivalent of the Winter Eladrin does Cones of Cold every time it fires its bow, right? That if there's a bow in there, it doesn't matter that the Winter Eladrin has all these other features that do damage and status effects and everything like that.

through the actions of a monster, it will hit on par for its challenge rating. And that would be the equivalent of the Winter Eladrin does Cones of Cold every time it fires its bow, right? That if there's a bow in there, it doesn't matter that the Winter Eladrin has all these other features that do damage and status effects and everything like that.

Whatever path you take through a stat block, if you think about like a monster stat block, And there's multiple paths. Does it do ranged attacks? Does it do a breath weapon? Does it do multi-attack? What does it use its legendary actions for? There's all these little decision trees that a GM can make when they're running a monster, right?

Whatever path you take through a stat block, if you think about like a monster stat block, And there's multiple paths. Does it do ranged attacks? Does it do a breath weapon? Does it do multi-attack? What does it use its legendary actions for? There's all these little decision trees that a GM can make when they're running a monster, right?

Whatever path you take through a stat block, if you think about like a monster stat block, And there's multiple paths. Does it do ranged attacks? Does it do a breath weapon? Does it do multi-attack? What does it use its legendary actions for? There's all these little decision trees that a GM can make when they're running a monster, right?

And sometimes that decision tree is really simple, like I walk up and I hit you with a big club, right? But even like the ogre might be, well, do I throw a rock or do I hit you with a club? And then there's like a path. Well, you don't want to have it where the rock does hardly any damage, but the club does a lot. And I don't think it was ever the case that a rock did it before.

And sometimes that decision tree is really simple, like I walk up and I hit you with a big club, right? But even like the ogre might be, well, do I throw a rock or do I hit you with a club? And then there's like a path. Well, you don't want to have it where the rock does hardly any damage, but the club does a lot. And I don't think it was ever the case that a rock did it before.

And sometimes that decision tree is really simple, like I walk up and I hit you with a big club, right? But even like the ogre might be, well, do I throw a rock or do I hit you with a club? And then there's like a path. Well, you don't want to have it where the rock does hardly any damage, but the club does a lot. And I don't think it was ever the case that a rock did it before.

But the new design is that whatever your path you traverse through a monster stat block to act, to do things, whatever those actions are, according to the stat block, should all be equally effective to the challenge rating of the monster. That makes perfect sense. And honestly, I'm kind of like, well, why didn't you do that the first way?

But the new design is that whatever your path you traverse through a monster stat block to act, to do things, whatever those actions are, according to the stat block, should all be equally effective to the challenge rating of the monster. That makes perfect sense. And honestly, I'm kind of like, well, why didn't you do that the first way?

But the new design is that whatever your path you traverse through a monster stat block to act, to do things, whatever those actions are, according to the stat block, should all be equally effective to the challenge rating of the monster. That makes perfect sense. And honestly, I'm kind of like, well, why didn't you do that the first way?

the first time but you know whatever so here we are now and i think it makes a lot of sense and that's why you see things like monsters that do a lot of extra elemental damage on certain attacks we started to see this propagate its way through other one through other monster books and monster products that we've seen from wizards of the coast but i haven't heard it articulated quite that way before which which really makes sense it doesn't necessarily mean the monsters are more powerful